Dec. 1, 2003
Long Beach, Ca - Top-seeded USC used strong defense and a steady offense to post an 8-6 win over second-seeded Stanford and win the MPSF Championship on Sunday afternoon at the Belmont Plaza Pool. With the win, USC earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Final Four next weekend at Stanford.
The Trojans scored two goals in every quarter and held a potent Cardinal offense to only two second half goals en route to their win. Stanford was led by Tony Azevedo, who scored three goals. Greg Crum, Thomas Hopkins and Peter Varellas also scored for the Cardinal.
The loss ended Stanford's 13-game winning streak. The Cardinal end the regular season 21-4.
USC joins Navy and Loyola Marymount in the NCAA Final Four at Stanford on Dec. 6-7. An at-large team will be announced on Monday.
Stanford 13026
USC 22228
Stanford Scorers: Azevedo 3, Crum 1, Varellas 1, Hopkins 1
USC Scorers: Zatovic 2, Shin 2, Clark 2, Kaiser 1, Hadar 1
Goalie Saves: Taylor (S) 6; Damjanovic (USC) 6
Sunday's Scores
Championship Game - USC 8, Stanford 6
3rd Place Game - UCLA 11, California 7
5th Place Game - Pepperdine 12, Long Beach State 8
7th Place Game - UC Santa Barbara 9, UC Irvine 8