COLLEGE ROUNDUP : UC Irvine Grabs Early Victories in Water Polo Tournament

Defending NCAA champion UC Irvine won its first two matches of the UC Irvine water polo tournament Friday at Corona del Mar High School.

Pablo Yrizar, a sophomore, scored six goals to lead fifth-ranked Irvine (2-1) to an 11-7 victory over Fresno State in the tournament’s opening match. Yrizar scored two and fellow sophomore Steve Gill scored three to lead Irvine to a 9-3 victory over Cal State Los Angeles in an afternoon match.

Tournament pool-play resumes today from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and will continue with the championship game at 1:40 p.m. Sunday.

Irvine will play UC Santa Barbara at 9:30 a.m. and USC at 1:50 p.m. today. USC, Stanford and UCLA also finished 2-0 after the first day of pool play.

USC defeated Fresno State, 9-8, on a score by Reggie Torres with one second left and defeated UC Santa Barbara 13-10. Torres had four goals in the Fresno State match.

UCLA beat UC San Diego, 14-3, and defeated Pepperdine, 10-4. In the Pepperdine match, Javier Escolar scored four goals for UCLA.

Stanford defeated UC San Diego, 15-4, and defeated Cal State Long Beach, 10-3.

Stanford was led by Sonora High School graduate Greg Olson. Olson scored four goals in Stanford’s victory over UC San Diego. Michael Fehmers also scored four in that game for the Cardinals.

In the UC Irvine women’s volleyball tournament:

UC Irvine 3, San Diego 1--Caron Pardee had 10 kills and Scotleen Risley had nine to lead UC Irvine (3-4) to a 7-15, 15-8, 15-9, 15-10 win over San Diego (4-6).

In the first round of the Christ College Irvine men’s soccer tournament:

Christ College Irvine 5, Christian Heritage 0--Aaron Clasen had 3 goals and Joe Lahore and Matt Richards each scored for Christ College Irvine (1-4).

In non-conference men’s soccer:

St. Mary’s 3, UC Irvine 2--Adam Bliss scored at 73:07 to break a 2-2 tie for St. Mary’s (3-2-1). Kevin Smith and Mark Kirsch each scored for Irvine (1-4-1).

In non-conference women’s volleyball:

Santa Clara defeated Cal State Fullerton 15-12, 15-6, 15-5.

For the host Titans (3-6), Becky Howlett had 9 kills, Stephanie Shrieve had 24 assists and Anne Witkowski had 10 digs. Shauna Jonas of Santa Clara (5-2) had 14 kills. The Titans host USF at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night.