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UCLA Wins Water Polo Title

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From Times Staff and Wire Reports

Freshman Brittany Rowe scored two goals and senior Natalie Golda scored the first goal of the game, and top-seeded UCLA defeated No. 3 Stanford, 3-2, on Sunday at Ann Arbor, Mich., to win the NCAA women’s water polo championship.

The Bruins (33-0), who won their third NCAA title and seventh national championship, set an NCAA winning-streak season record and became the second team to finish undefeated. USC was 29-0 in 2004.

“I think this is the greatest women’s water polo team ever,” said Coach Adam Krikorian, who has won four national titles with the Bruins. “This a team that people won’t soon forget.”

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Golda gave UCLA a 1-0 lead with a goal with 4:03 to play in the first quarter, taking advantage of a six-on-five break. Rowe’s goal with 1:35 left in the quarter made it 2-0.

Hannah Luber’s goal with 5:40 to go in the third quarter cut the Cardinal’s deficit to 2-1. Rowe put the Bruins ahead, 3-1, in the fourth quarter before Katie Hansen scored for Stanford (22-7) with 4:12 to play.

No. 2 USC (25-5) parlayed two goals each from Moriah Van Norman, Lauren Wenger and Eszter Gyori into an 11-6 victory over No. 4 Hawaii (21-11) for third place, No. 5 Loyola Marymount (30-7) got three goals from Rosanna Tomiuk for a 10-5 win over No. 6 Michigan (29-13) for fifth place and Alie Hower scored four goals to lead No. 7 Redlands (20-13) in 10-9 victory over No. 8 Wagner (24-10) for seventh place.

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Seventh-seeded UCLA and No. 8 Pepperdine advanced to the NCAA men’s tennis round of 16 Saturday at Texas A&M.;

UCLA (23-3) moved on with a 4-2 victory over California (12-10) in a second-round match at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The Bruins will play No. 10 Tennessee (16-8) in the next round.

Pepperdine (23-2) advanced with a 4-2 win over Stanford (14-11) at Malibu. It was the 17th straight win for the Waves, who play Duke (18-5) on Saturday.

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Two-time defending national champion UCLA was selected as host of an NCAA softball regional and will begin play against Loyola Marymount on Friday.

A new tournament format is in place, with 16 schools playing host to four-team regionals and the winners advancing to the NCAA super-regionals. Eight sites were used before with six teams in each regional when the field was 48 teams and eight teams when it went to 64.

UCLA (30-16) finished fifth in the Pacific 10 Conference. Loyola Marymount (34-18), making its first postseason appearance in a regional, earned an automatic bid by winning the Pacific Coast Softball Conference.

Cal State Fullerton (28-19) will play Nevada Las Vegas in the other matchup at UCLA. Long Beach State (39-14), the Big West Conference champion, was sent to Fresno State, where it will face the host Bulldogs.

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