When UC Irvine flew up to Berkeley last Saturday, the Cal men’s water polo team decided to play the role of gracious host.

Not content with just inviting the seventh-ranked Anteaters into Spieker Aquatics Complex, the No. 2 Bears were kind enough to put the game on hold in the second quarter of a 13-10 win to run a defensive clinic.

With the score tied at 2-2 after the opening period, Cal blew the game open with a six-goal run that was punctuated only when UC Irvine drew two ejections and scored on a 6-on-4 man advantage.

At full numbers, however, Cal looked unstoppable. Sophomore Ivan Rackov started the show early with a beautiful move, picking the ball up over the head of a driving attacker and converting it into a quick counterattack goal.

But while Rackov has taken over this season as the Cal’s leading scorer with 39 goals, senior co-captain Spencer Warden is still unquestionably the team’s best player.

As coach Kirk Everist is fond of saying, Warden often looked as if he were in two places at once as he disrupted the Anteater offense. At just under three minutes left in the quarter, he jumped seemingly out of nowhere to pick the ball off near the top line for the first of his two steals.

Less than a minute later, he made a full-length leap out of the pool to rob a high-arcing, cross-cage pass.

Despite his acrobatics, the three-time All-American brushes off his exploits as simply routine.

“I just anticipated the pass,” said Warden, who has a team-high 45 steals. “Just playing the game, man. Trying to make a play here and there, and sometimes it works out for me.”

His teammates, though, aren’t quite as dismissive.

“I know there’s no stats for how many times he denies their best offensive player the ball, but I’m just happy he’s on our team,” two-meter defender Brian Dudley said. “It’s incredible.”