Oct. 7, 2002

Berkeley, Calif. - In Cal's second match of the day, the Golden Bears squared off against No. 3 USC in a match that pitted Northern California against Southern California for the right to advance to the tournament's semifinal bracket. The Trojans earned a spot in the semifinals by defeating the Golden Bears in triple overtime 8-7.

Missed opportunities were the theme of the match for the Bears as neither team could muster much offense in the first half, going into the break tied 1-1. Cal was not without chances though, as Banhidy and Rob Arroyo both missed point blank penalty shots that could have given the Bears a commanding lead.

Cal jumped out to the early lead just 17 seconds into the second half, scoring on Arroyo's first of two goals to take the 2-1 lead. But the Trojans came right back, as Jaraj Zatovic scored a little more than 30 seconds later to knot the score at 2-2. Tensions started to rise and the Bears looked to capitalize on the energy. Vince Bevins put the Bears ahead on his third goal of the season before Peter Conte would steal the ball at the midpoint and go one-on-one with USC's keeper to net another goal putting Cal ahead 4-2. There was no quit in the Trojans though, as they tied the game with 21 seconds to go in the third period on an over-the-shoulder shot by Nick Andrejic. Arroyo proceeded to give the Bears the lead with one second remaining in the period on a nice rebound shot.

Back and forth the teams went, as neither squad wanted to back down. USC outscored Cal 2-1 in the fourth stanza to send the game into overtime. It wasn't until the 1:09 mark into the second overtime that the Trojans scratched the scoreboard first to take the 7-6 lead. But just 17 seconds later, Greg Panawek lobbed the ball over the head of USC's keeper to squeak a game-tying goal and send the game into a sudden-death triple overtime.

The Trojans resilience paid off as 47 seconds into sudden death, USC's Jordan Hewko skipped the ball under the outstretched arm of Cal's Russell Bernstein to win the game in dramatic fashion.

Cal will face Loyola Marymount tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. at Spieker Aquatics Complex for the right to advance to advance to the 5th place match. Stanford will face USC in the first semifinal match at 9:50 a.m. while UC Irvine will face UCLA in the other semifinal matchup.

GAME SUMMARY

GOALS
CAL - Arroyo 2, Bevins 2, Conte, Panawek, Quist
USC - Lipinski 2, Zatovic 2, Damjanov 2, Hewko, Andrejic

SAVES
CAL - Bernstein 8
USC - Damjanovic 11

BOX SCORE

	1	2	3	4	OT	OT	OT	TOTAL
USC	1	0	4	1	0	1	0	7
CAL	1	0	3	2	0	1	1	8