Nov. 26, 2004
Stanford, Ca - Tony Azevedo and Peter Varellas each scored four goals to power second-seeded Stanford to a 10-5 victory over seventh-seeded Pepperdine on Friday at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Men's Water Polo Tournament.
Varellas scored three of his four goals while Azevedo added a goal in the second period. Pepperdine's Adam Hewko scored at 2:46 of the third period to cut Stanford's lead to 6-5, but the Cardinal scored four straight times to win going away, 10-5.
Stanford, ranked second in the nation, will face defending NCAA champion USC on Saturday (6:30 p.m.) during championship semifinal action at the Avery Aquatic Center. The Trojans advanced with a come-from-behind 10-8 overtime victory over California.
This will be the third meeting between Stanford and USC. On Sept. 19, the Trojans downed then top-ranked and previously unbeaten Stanford, 8-6, in the championship game of the Southern California Tournament. Thomas Hopkins led the Stanford attack with three goals while Peter Varellas added a pair of goals. Juraj Zatovic led USC with four goals, including two goals in the final period. In their second game on Sept. 25, Greg Crum scored three goals, including the game winner with 1:42 to play to give second-ranked Stanford a 9-8 victory over then top-ranked and previously unbeaten USC at the Avery Aquatic Center. The Stanford win broke a five-game losing streak to the Trojans over the last two years. Azevedo and Varellas each scored scored two goals in the Cardinal win. James Shinn scored three times for USC. Stanford goalkeeper Chad Taylor recorded a career-high 17 saves while Trojan goalkeeper Don Ricci tallied 14 saves.
Top-ranked UCLA (22-2) will face UC Irvine (16-12) in the other championship semifinal match at 5:00 p.m.
The MPSF championship game will be held Sunday (11/28/) at 4:30 p.m. The game will be televised live on CSTV. The winner of the MPSF Tournament will receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Championship slated Dec. 4-5 at Stanford University. Princeton, winner of the East Coast championship, and Loyola Marymount, winner of the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) Tournament, have advanced to the NCAA Final Four. An at-large team will be selected Sunday night to fill out the four-team national championship field.
Friday's Results - First Round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Tournament
Avery Aquatic Center - Stanford University
Game 1 - UC Irvine 6, Long Beach State 5
Game 2 - USC 10, California 8 (ot)
Game 3 - Stanford 10, Pepperdine 5
Game 4 - UCLA 6, UC Santa Barbara 1
Saturday's Schedule - MPSF Tournament
Game 5 - 2:00 p.m. - Long Beach State (15-12) vs UC Santa Barbara (18-12)
Game 6 - 3:30 p.m. - California (19-9) vs Pepperdine (14-13)
Game 7 - 5:00 p.m. - UC Irvine (16-12) vs UCLA (22-2) - championship semifinal
Game 8 - 6:30 p.m. - Stanford (20-4) vs USC (22-4) - championship semifinal
Sunday's Schedule - MPSF Tournament
Game 9 - Noon - 7th place: Losers Games 5 & 6
Game 10 - 1:30 p.m. - 5th place: Winners Games 5 & 6
Game 11 - 3:00 p.m. - 3rd place: Losers Games 7 & 8
Game 12 - 4:30 p.m. - 1st place: Winners Games 7 & 8 (televised live on CSTV)
UC Irvine1131=6
Long Beach St2012=5
UC Irvine scorers: Noon 2, Merlo 2, Barry 1, Mello 1
Long Beach State scorers: Gerardi 2, Tomassi 1, Sakata 1, Scoles 1
Goalie Saves: Wynne (UCI 4); Onyshko (LBS) 5
Recap: Rick Merlo scored what proved to be the winning goal with 5:45 in the fourth period to give fifth-seeded UC Irvine a 6-5 victory over fourth-seeded Long Beach. Merlo scored two goals along with Dan Noon. Down 6-3 in the fourth period, Long Beach scored goals at 5:06 by Jay Gerardi and at 13 seconds by Reid Tomassi, but could get no closer.
USC31212-1=10
California21311-0=8
USC scorers: Kaiser 4, Clark 1, Delgadillo 1, Shin 1, Zatovic 1, Andrejich 1, Corcoran 1
California scorers: Kinsel 4, Bacharach 1, Vasiljevic 1, Hayes 1, Sharf 1
Goalie saves: Ricci (USC) 9; Bennett (C) 15
Recap: Cameron Kaiser scored two of his team-high four goals in overtime to lead third-seeded USC to a 10-8 double overtime victory over sixth-seeded California. Down 7-6, the Trojans, the defending NCAA champion, scored with 60 seconds in the game on a goal by Kaiser. Kaiser then added two goals in the first overtime and Trevor Clark added an insurance goal in the second overtime.
Stanford1423=10
Pepperdine0320=5
Stanford scorers: Varellas 4, Azevedo 4, Hopkins 2
Pepperdine scorers: Mann 2, Hewko 1, Digges 1, Acosta 1
Goalie saves: Taylor (S) 8; Miller 11
Recap: Tony Azevedo and Peter Varellas each scored four goals to power second-seeded Stanford to a 10-5 victory over seventh-seeded Pepperdine. Varellas scored three of his four goals while Azevedo added a goal in the second period. Pepperdine's Adam Hewko scored at 2:46 of the third period to cut Stanford's lead to 6-5, but the Cardinal scored four straight goals to win going away, 10-5.
UCLA3210=6
UCSB0010=1
UCLA scorers: Ormsby 2, Belden 1, Garcia 1, Powell 1, March 1UC Santa Barbara scorers: Alexander 1
Goalie saves: Axelrad (UCLA) 4; Bonafede (UCSB) 9
Recap: Brett Ormsby scored two goals to lead the top-ranked UCLA Bruins to a 6-1 victory over UC Santa Barbara. UCLA jumped to a 3-0 first period lead, and extended the margin to 5-0 at halftime. The Bruins defense held the Gauchos scoreless until 3:35 of the third period on a goal by Brian Alexander.
™