Dec. 6, 2003
Stanford, Calif. - The USC Trojans advanced to the championship game of the 2003 NCAA Water Polo Championship with a convincing 10-6 win over Navy, Saturday night in the first semifinal at Avery Stadium on the campus of Stanford University. The Trojans will face the host Stanford Cardinal, who defeated Loyola Marymount 14-8 in the second semifinal, for the NCAA national championship on Sunday, December 7, at 5:00 pm (PT) at Avery Stadium. The Naval Academy will square off with LMU in the consolation game which will take place at 3:30 pm (PT).
With the win, the Trojans improved to 23-3 and advance to its ninth NCAA water polo championship game. USC claimed its only water polo national title in 1998. With the loss, the Midshipmen fall to 25-7 on the season.
The Trojans, who entered the weekend as the No. 1 ranked team, jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after the first period. USC won the opening sprint and just 40 seconds into the match, Zatovic gave the Trojans a 1-0 lead, a lead that it wouldn't relinquish, taking advantage of a 6-on-5 with a shot past the out stretched hands of Navy goalie Patrick McCreary. The Trojans continued to press the attack and scored 48 seconds later when Brett Reynolds skipped a shot past McCreary to give USC a 2-0 advantage. The Trojans struck again 3:39 minutes into the first period when Predrag Damjanov floated a shot from four meters out to take USC to a 3-0 lead.
Navy came out aggressive in the second period and were able to break through USC's defenses for its first goal of the game. With just 1:37 remaining in the second half, Jordan Gentry lofted a shot from two meters out over the outstretched hands of USC goalie Bozidar Damjanovic to pull the Midshipmen within two goals of the Trojans at 3-1.
With the score at 3-1 in favor of the Trojans, USC came out of the break aggressive, netting three scores in the third period. Zatovic added his second goal of the game, while Nick Andrejic added two scores in the period to give USC a 6-1 cushion.
"I think we made good adjustments on our power point offense," said USC Head Coach Jovan Vavic. "In the first half we only scored on 1 out of 5, but in the second half we scored 5. That was the difference."
"In the third period, they dictated to us what we were allowed to do on offense," said Carl Salyer. "We tried to attack the goal but they did a great job of keeping our players from any really good drives or good openings."
In what was a tight, low scoring affair, both teams turned up the offense in the fourth period, with Navy tallying five goals, while USC added four to bring the final score to 10-6. Patrick Rollo added two goals for Navy in the fourth period, while Bill Miante, Alex Ratcliffe, and Michael Suriano each chipped in one for the Midshipmen.
Zatovic added his third goal of the game, while Ted Zepfel, Trevor Clark, and Juan Delgadillo registered goals for the Trojans in the fourth period.
Scoring Summary1234TotNavy (25-7) 303410USC (23-3) 01056
Navy Scorers: Patrick Rollo (2), Jordan Gentry (1), Bill Miante (1), Alex Ratcliffe (1), Michael Suriano (1)
USC Scorers: Juraj Zatovic (3), Nick Andrejic (2), Brett Reynolds (1), Predrag Damjanov (1), Ted Zepfel (1), Trevor Clark (1), Juan Delgadillo (1)
Goalie Saves: Navy (8) USC (7)