With only two at-large bids in addition to the automatic bid for the conference winner, only 3 of the 4 worthy MPSF schools can qualify for the NCAA championships (in two weeks from USC). Because the Golden Bears dropped their first match 8-5 to UCLA, they must win this 3rd place match to get one of the at-large bid. Revenge is also on the mind of the Golden Bears, who lost the Big Splash (and the Steve Heaston Trophy) to Stanford from this same pool 1.5 week ago.
Bears took care of business on Saturday, easily dispatching Penn State Behrend (weirdly, they are the 5th MPSF team along side Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC).