Pepperdine, Stanford, Cal, UCLA Advance in NCAA Water Polo

Pepperdine defeated USC, 10-9, in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. water polo tournament Friday to advance to the semifinals against undefeated Stanford at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach.

And although Stanford cruised to a 23-5 victory over Air Force for its 43rd straight win over two seasons, Pepperdine Coach Terry Schroeder doesn’t believe the Cardinal is invincible.

“We’re the only team in the nation that has the offensive power to stay with them,” said Schroeder, whose team lost twice to Stanford during the regular season, 12-10 and 10-8.

Stanford and Pepperdine will play at 6 tonight. In the other semifinal, UCLA will play California at 7:30.

UCLA outscored Navy, 4-0, in the third quarter and defeated the Midshipmen, 13-7. Freshmen Greg Salvinski and Alexis Rousseau were among four two-goal scorers for the Bruins.

Second-seeded California, held to a 2-2 tie at halftime, defeated Brown, 11-4.

Pepperdine scored four goals early in the third quarter to break a 4-4 halftime tie, then survived a USC comeback.

The Waves had five two-goal scorers: Sasa Poljak, Pero Asic, Rafael Gandarillas, Paul Matarangas and Aaron Chasen.

Robert Lynn had three goals for the Trojans.

Stanford, which led, 10-1, after the first period, got four goals from Matt Tingler.