NCAA Water Polo Championship : USC Holds Off UC Irvine Rally, 13-11

Zoltan Berty scored twice in the last 1 minute 44 seconds to give third-seeded USC a 13-11 victory over UC Irvine in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. water polo tournament at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach.

USC led, 7-2, before Irvine rallied. The Anteaters tied it, 9-9, 10-10 and 11-11. Robert Lynn led USC with 4 goals. Skylar Putman and Chris Morgan scored 3 goals, Tony Bell and Tom Warde 2 each and Mark Herman 1 for Irvine.

Irvine moves into the consolation bracket and plays Navy at 2:30 p.m. Navy lost to UCLA, 11-3, in the first round also Friday. Arkansas Little Rock plays Cal State Long Beach at 1 p.m. in the other consolation round match.

USC plays UCLA at 7:30 p.m. and California plays Stanford at 6 p.m. in the semifinal round.