NCAA Water Polo Tournament : UC Irvine Beats UCLA, Faces Stanford in Final

Goalie Mark Maizel made 16 saves and Jeff Campbell and J.R. Salvatore each scored three goals to lead UC Irvine to a 7-6 victory over UCLA in the NCAA water polo tournament Saturday night in Long Beach.

The second-seeded Anteaters (23-7) will play top-seeded Stanford (24-4) in the championship game tonight at 7:30 at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool.

Stanford defeated UC Santa Barbara, 7-6, in the other semifinal game.

Irvine broke a 5-5 tie when Campbell, an All-American and the biggest player in the pool at 6-4 and 205 pounds, jammed in a goal with a back-handed wrist shot.

Salvatore increased the lead to 7-5 before Monty Yort scored for UCLA. But the Bruins were unable to get the ball past Maizel in the final three minutes.

Maizel was so effective that one of his saves came on a penalty shot.

Stanford led, 7-3, but had to hold off Santa Barbara, which scored three times in the fourth quarter.

The Gauchos had a chance to tie but freshman goalie Todd Kemp saved Stanford when he deflected a close shot by Roberto Aguilar with less than 10 seconds left.

“I’ve never seen a tournament this close,” said Stanford Coach Dante Dettamanti.

The Cardinal won two of three games from Irvine in the regular season.