NCAA WATER POLO CHAMPIONSHIPS : Fouls Hurt Anteaters in Semifinal Loss to Cal

LONG BEACH —  California’s depth proved too much for UC Irvine and the Golden Bears defeated the Anteaters, 13-10, in a semifinal match of the NCAA Water Polo championships Saturday at Belmont Plaza.

Steve Gill, who led Irvine with four goals, and Steve Froning each had to sit for much of the second and third quarters because they had two ejections (players may not return to the game after a third ejection) and Irvine did not have the depth to make up for their loss.

Gill scored Irvine’s first three goals by controlling the two-meter position on offense, and Irvine took a 3-2 lead with 4 minutes 38 seconds left in the first quarter.

Cal brought Gavin Arroyo, a two-meter defensive specialist, in to counter Gill, but Irvine switched tactics to running picks outside the two-meter spot.

But Irvine had trouble containing Cal’s two-meter men, Chris Humbert and Dirk Zeien. Humbert and Zeien each scored four goals, and Cal induced Irvine into nine ejections, giving Cal plenty of six-on-five opportunities. Cal committed only four major fouls.

Mistakes late in the game hurt Irvine the most. Irvine trailed, 12-10, with 3:21 remaining in the fourth quarter when it called timeout and set up a play. But Cal (25-1) stole the pass coming out of the timeout, and Humbert scored from 10 meters out to secure the victory.

Cal will play UCLA in tonight’s 8 p.m. final and Irvine will play Pepperdine for third place at 6 p.m. SportsChannel will televise the championship match.

In the other semifinal:

UCLA 6, Pepperdine 5--Oliver Will and Chris Kellerman each scored twice and Dan Hackett had 15 saves for the Bruins.

In the fifth-place semifinals:

Cal State Long Beach 13, Navy 9--Chi Kredell scored three goals for fifth-seeded Long Beach (16-10). Navy (20-9) played well early and trailed, 6-5, at halftime. But Long Beach outscored Navy, 4-1, in the third quarter.

UC San Diego 12, Slippery Rock 10--Slippery Rock (25-7) took a 5-2 first-quarter lead, but that just seemed to wake up San Diego (22-15). San Diego scored 10 goals in the next two quarters en route to the victory.

San Diego will play Long Beach in the fifth-place final at 2:30 p.m. and Navy will play Slippery Rock for seventh place at 1 p.m.