No. 2 Cal Men's Water Polo Upsets No. 1 USC, 6-5, to Capture MPSF Title

MPOLO11/26/2006 12:00 PM | By: Cal Athletics

No. 2 Cal Men's Water Polo Upsets No. 1 USC, 6-5, to Capture MPSF Title

Nov. 26, 2006

NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship Central

IRVINE, CALIF. - Fourth-quarter goals by freshman Spencer Warden and junior Jeff Tyrrell lifted the No. 2-ranked California men's water polo team (29-4) to a 6-5 win over No. 1-ranked and defending national champion USC (25-1) for the championship of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament at the UC Irvine Anteater Aquatic Complex Sunday. With the victory, the Golden Bears receive the conferences' automatic berth to the NCAA Championship at Loyola Marymount next weekend, Dec. 2-3. Sunday's victory by Cal also snapped USC's 44-match winning streak.

Cal now joins UC San Diego and Navy as the three teams who automatically qualified for the NCAA Tournament at Loyola Marymount. USC was selected for an at-large berth. The Trojans will play Navy (24-5) at 12 p.m. and the Bears will face UC San Diego (25-5) at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2 at Loyola Marymount's Burns Aquatics Center. Earlier this season, Cal had defeated UC San Diego, 12-8, Sept. 16 in the second round of the NorCal Open at Stanford.

The Trojans had taken a 5-4 lead on a goal by Arjan Ligtenberg with 5:54 left in the fourth quarter before Warden converted a power-play goal with 4:00 remaining and Tyrrell hit the game-winner on a penalty shot with 1:12 left. The Bears had overcome a 4-2 halftime deficit on third-period goals by junior All-American Michael Sharf and senior captain Brian Bacharach.

Warden led Cal with two goals while junior goalie Mark Sheredy had nine saves. Senior All-American John Mann also tallied a goal for the Bears. Gabor Sarusi led USC with a pair of goals and Adam Shilling had 10 stops in goal.

Cal had defeated Long Beach State, 17-6, on Friday in the MPSF opening round, before upending UCLA, 8-5, Saturday. The Bears had played USC in the finals of both the NorCal and SoCal Tournaments this season, and narrowly fell to the Trojans, 10-9, last weekend in Los Angeles. Cal won its fifth MPSF Tournament title, also capturing the league crown in 1992, 1993, 1995 and 2002. The Bears won the national title in 1992, and was national runners-up in 1995 and 2002. 

Cal   2  0  2  2 - 6
USC 2  2  0  1 - 5

Cal scorers: Warden 2, Bacharach, Mann,
Sharf, Tyrrell

USC scorers: Sarusi 2, Valovic, Corcoran,
Ligtenberg

Saves: Sheredy (Cal) 9; Shilling (USC) 10
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