The first round of the 2012 MPSF men's water polo tournament is in the books, and the top four seeds all managed to move onto Saturday's semifinals tilts. All of the games were close, with the exception of top seeded USC easily taking care of Santa Barbara.
| Friday, November 23 | |||
| 10:00 a.m. | Game 1 | #1 USC 17, #8 UC Santa Barbara 9 |
Results |
| 11:30 a.m. | Game 2 | #2 UCLA 10, #7 Pacific 8 | Results |
| 1:30 p.m. | Game 3 | #3 California 11, #6 Pepperdine 9 | Results |
| 3:00 p.m. | Game 4 | #4 Stanford 14, #5 Long Beach State 13 (OT3) | Results |
The game of the day belonged to Long Beach State vs. Stanford, the game went to sudden death overtime with Stanford winning 14-13. This was Long Beach State's best season in years, and they were very close advancing to the semifinals. It would not be their day as Stanford scored 26 seconds in the third-overtime period to advance. It would be Stanford's Alex Bowen who sank the game winner, and that would be his sixth goal of the game.
Long Beach State had a chance in regulation with less than 30 seconds left, but Spencer White's breakaway counter attack hit the top cross bar and went out of bounds.
Throughout the game, Long Beach State was either tied or behind by a goal or two, but they did not have enough to move on.