NCAA WATER POLO CHAMPIONSHIPS : UCI, Warde Roll in Opener; Stanford Next

Senior Tom Warde scored five goals to lead UC Irvine to a 13-6 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock in a first-round match in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. water polo championships Friday.

Irvine, the second-seeded team, plays No. 3 Stanford at 4:30 today (PST)in one semifinal match. Stanford defeated UC San Diego, 7-6.

California, the top-seeded team, defeated eighth-seeded Brown, 15-2, and fourth-seeded Pepperdine defeated No. 5 Cal State Long Beach, 13-8, in the other first-round matches.

California plays Pepperdine in the other semifinal match. The championship game is Sunday.

Irvine (25-6) led, 2-0, after a quarter and upped the lead to 7-2 at the half. Irvine then outscored Little Rock, 4-0, in the third quarter to put the game away.

Julian Harvey and Pablo Yrizar scored three goals each, and Skylar Putman and Tom Lowery scored single goals for Irvine. Warde has scored 97 goals this season, the fourth-highest single-season total in Anteater history.