Three of Top 4 Seeds Advance to Semis of Men’s So-Cal Water Polo Tourney

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15. TOP-seeded and No. 1-ranked Stanford plus national No. 3 UC Irvine, No. 4 Cal and the University of the Pacific all advanced to Sunday's championship semifinals of the men's 2002 So-Cal Water
Polo Tournament.

The tourney is under way at USC's MacDonald's Olympic Pool. Saturday's opening-round matches featured some of the nation's leading collegiqate teams, including John Vargas' defending NCAA champ Stanford Cardinal; No. 2 USC, Irvine, Cal, Pepperdine, No. 6 UCLA, No. 7 Loyola Marymount, No. 8 UC San Diego, No. 9 Long Beach State, No. 10 UC Santa Barbara, Pacific and No.12 Navy.

Pacific upset USC, 8-7, in Saturday's action to finish 2-0 in pool play. Stanford and Cal will tangle in one semifinal matchup today 10:20 AM PDT while the other semifinal matchup — featuring Pacific's Tigers and Irvine's Anteaters — will follow at 11:30. The winners will meet for the tournament championship at 6:30 PM with the third-place match set 5:20 PM.

Stanford, led by last year's NCAA Player of the Year and Olympian Tony Azevedo, romped to a pair 10-4 wins over Cal. State Long Beach and UCSD. Azevedo scored three goals in each game to pace the Cardinal.

Coach Ed Newlin's UCI team, which last week opened its season by upsetting then No. 2-ranked UCLA, won both its matches Saturday — 12-4 over UCSB and then withstood a fourth-quarter comeback by Pepperdine to triumph, 8-7.

Cal romped past Navy, 15-5 in its opening match, then took the measure of its southern "cousin," UCLA, 11-8, in overtime.

UOP's Tigers advanced via a 10-8 win over Loyola Marymount, host institution for this year's NCAA Final Four in December; and then they toppled 1999 NCAA champ USC, 8-7. In the win over LMU, Tiger Sasha Maese had three goals and Eddie Wisniewwski had a pair. Aainst USC, Nic Nepper was UOP's big gun,
scoring thrice while teammate Kraig Jorgensen had a pair

— Bill Bell

Results from Saturday's action and Sunday's schedule:

Game #1
Long Beach State (4-1) 1-0-3-3—7
UC San Diego (4-3) 2-1-0-2—5

LBS Goals: David del Grande 2, Brad Scoles 2, Aaron Holloway, Kellyn Carlson, Nathan Allard
UCSD Goals: Jonathan Hopkins 2, Steven Jendrusina, Paul Motschall, Jesse Casellini
LBS Saves: Michael Konstas 8
UCSD Saves: Lance Onken 7

Game #2
Pacific (2-0) 3-2-3-2—10
Loyola Marymount (2-3) 3-1-4-0—8

UOP Goals: Sasha Maese 3, Eddie Wisniewski 2, Nic Hepner, Chris Nowak, Jared Pendergrass, Jarrod Cruzat, Danny Johnson
LMU Goals: Kevin Witt 2, Adam Zintsmaster 2, Andrew Aukland, Kris Barr, Scott Smith, Andrew Jensen
UOP Saves: Laurie Trettel 10
LMU Saves: Kevin Paulsen 8

Game #3
UC Santa Barbara (1-2) 1-1-1-1—4
UC Irvine (2-0) 7-3-2-1—13

UCSB Goals: Andrew Schoneberger 2, Anthony Borasi, Doug Arthur
UCI Goals: Jeff Powers 7, Dreason Barry 3, Garrett Gentry 2, Nate White
UCSB Saves: Sherwin Kim 2
UCI Saves: Doug Finfrock 8

Game #4
Navy (3-2) 1-3-0-1—5
Cal (1-0) 5-4-3-3—15

Navy Goals: Joe Donahue 2, Adrian Rawn, Ben Ceniseroz, Joseph Smutz
Cal Goals: Greg Panawak 3, Attila Banhady 3, Peter Conte 2, Andrew Stoddard 2, Will Quist, Rob Arroyo, Tom Kurth, Greg Snyder, Jason Malinsky
Navy Saves: Cody Acuna 3 (1st half); Nick Hill 7 (2nd half)
Cal Saves: Russell Bernstein 1 (1st half); Tim Kates (2nd half) 2

Game #5
Long Beach State (4-2) 0-0-3-3—6
Stanford (3-0) 5-4-1-0—10

LBS Goals: David del Grande 2, Erik Geoffroy 2, Pat Logan, Aaron Holloway
Stanford Goals: Tony Azevado 3, Mike Derse 3, Greg Crum, Thomas Hopkins, Peter Hudnut, Jeff Guyman
LBS Saves: Michael Konstas 3 (1st half); Thomas Onyshko 5 (2nd half)
Stanford Saves: Nick Ellis 6 (1st half); Chad Taylor 1 (2nd half)

Game #6
Pacific (3-0) 3-2-0-3—8
USC (4-1) 2-2-2-1—7

UOP Goals: Nic Hepner 3, Kraig Jorgensen 2, Sasha Maese, Will McLaughlin, Chris Nowak
USC Goals: Gadi Hadar 2, Jaraj Zatovic 2, Erik Healy, Jeff Larson, Jordan Hewko
UOP Saves: Laurie Trettel 9
USC Saves: Bozidar Damjanovic 9

Game #7
UC Irvine (3-0) 3-2-2-1—8
Pepperdine (1-1) 0-3-2-2—7

UCI Goals: Rick Merlo 3, Garrett Gentry 2, Dreason Barry, Dan Noon, Jeff Powers
Pepp Goals: Jesse Smith 2, Karl Niehaus 2, Morgan Matthies, Michael Hausman, Josh Acosta
UCI Saves: Doug Finfrock 9
Pepp Saves: Michael Soltis 6

Game #8 – Overtime
Cal (2-0) 3-1-2-1-2-2—11
UCLA (0-2) 1-1-3-2-1-0—8

Cal Goals: Todd Hylton 4, Andrew Stoddard 2, Attila Banhidy 2, Ryan Crowley, Rob Arroyo, Greg Panawek
UCLA Goals: Matt Flesher 2, Ted Peck, Albert Garcia, Brett Ormsby, Josh Hewko, Dan Yeilding
Cal Saves: Russell Bernstein 8
UCLA Saves: Brandon Brooks 6

Game #9
UC San Diego (4-4) 0-3-1-0—4
Stanford (4-0) 3-2-1-4—10

UCSD Goals: Kevin Smoker 2, Jonathan Hopkins, Kellan Hori
Stan Goals: Tony Azevado 3, Mike Derse 2, Peter Hudnut 2, Thomas Hopkins, Greg Crum, Jeff Nesmith
UCSD Saves: Lance Onken 8
Stan Saves: Nick Ellis 8

Game #10
Loyola Marymount (2-4) 0-0-0-4—4
USC (5-1) 1-3-1-2—7

LMU Goals: Eric Lefebvre 2, Endre Rex-Kiss, Kevin Witt
USC Goals: Jaraj Zatovic 2, Jordan Hewko, Brett Reynolds, Gadi Hadar, Predrag Damjanov, Cameron Kaiser
LMU Saves: Kevin Paulsen 6
USC Saves: Bozidar Damjanovic 3

Game #11
UC Santa Barbara (1-3) 1-2-1-2—6
Pepperdine (2-1) 4-2-3-1—10

UCSB Goals: David Letts 2, Anthony Borasi, Doug Arthur, Mark Welch
Pepp Goals: Jesse Smith 2, William Rodriguez 2, Karl Niehaus 2, Scott Harvey, Jordan Keitel, Chad Caldwell, Michael Hausmann
UCSB Saves: Robert Burrus 3
Pepp Saves: Michael Soltis 2

Game #12
Navy (3-3) 2-0-2-2—6
UCLA (1-2) 2-0-3-2—7

Navy Goals: Joe Donahue 3, Patrick Rollo 3
UCLA Goals: Josh Hewko 2, Ted Peck, Peter Belden, Albert Garcia, Brett Ormsby, Matt Flesher
Navy Saves: Nick Hill 9
UCLA Saves: Brandon Brooks 7

Tournament Schedule

Sunday, September 15
Game Time
13. 8:00 Long Beach State vs. UCLA
14. 9:10 USC vs. Pepperdine
15. 10:20 Stanford vs. California – Semi Finals
16. 11:30 Pacific vs. UC Irvine – Semi Finals
17. 12:40 UC San Diego vs. Navy
18. 1:50 Loyola Marymount vs. UC Santa Barbara
19. 3:00 Losers of Games 13 & 14 (7th Place)
20. 4:10 Winners of Games 13 & 14 (5th Place)
21. 5:20 Losers of Games 15 & 16 (3rd Place)
22. 6:30 Winners of Games 15 & 16 (1st Place)
23. 7:40 Winners of Games 17 & 18 (9th Place)
24. 8:50 Losers of Games 17 & 18 (11th Place)

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