LOS ANGELES -- UC Davis senior Nir Gross and sophomore Aleix Aznar Beltran were named to the 2021 NCAA championship all-tournament second team on Sunday, following the conclusion of the national championship at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles.

The pair become only the second and third Aggies to ever earn the honor, joining former standout Mike Gotelli, who was named to the team following the 1997 championship.

Gross finished with five goals and a pair of assists in UC Davis' run to the NCAA semifinals, scoring four times and assisting on two others in the Aggies' 9-8 overtime win over Long Beach State, helping his team post the program's first postseason win since 1996. The four goals came on seven shots -- including two scores on the power play -- while drawing four exclusions in the win over the Beach.

The 2021 Western Water Polo Association Player of the Year and all-conference first team selection followed that up with a power play goal on five shots and three exclusions drawn against top-ranked USC two days later, helping his team stay within striking distance of the Trojans.

Aznar Beltran, an All-WWPA Honorable Mention honoree in 2021, capped off his first collegiate season with a goal and four assists during the Aggies' two-game postseason run, taking eight shots while playing 56 of a possible 70 minutes.

UC Davis wrapped up the 2021 season with a 19-9 overall record and a 7-1 mark in WWPA en route to clinching the program's sixth conference title in school history -- and its fourth in the last six seasons. Of the team's 28 contests, 22 of those came against schools that were either ranked or receiving votes in that week's polls, posting wins in 13 of those.

This year's appearance in the NCAA Tournament was the program's eighth overall and its second straight after opting out of the 2020-21 season due to the pandemic. With their win over Long Beach State to advance to the semifinals, UC Davis finished tied for third in the nation for the second time in program history and the first since the 1996 squad fell to UCLA, but defeated UMass in the third-place game.
 

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