WATER POLO / NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS : USC Goal Disallowed; Stanford Wins

For USC, it looked too good to be true.

It was.

An apparent goal to tie the score for the Trojans was disallowed and Stanford won the NCAA water polo championship, defeating the Trojans, 11-9, at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach on Sunday.

After trailing by four goals in the fourth quarter, USC pulled within one with a little more than a minute left.

Stanford had a man advantage when Hagan Grantham of USC stole an inbounds pass, drove down the left side of the pool, and when the defense sagged, took a shot--much to the surprise of Stanford goalie Larry Bercutt.

Bercutt, who shared tournament MVP honors with USC’s Uzi Hadar, had ample reason for surprise.

Grantham was fouled when he stole the ball, so he had to pass. Instead, Grantham drove and shot, which is a violation. So the ball went back to the Cardinal.

Stanford’s Frank Schneider scored from the two-meter position and the Cardinal (24-6) had the title wrapped up.

“The crowd roared when he stole the ball and he just didn’t hear the whistle,” USC Coach John Williams said. “He did a great job to steal it. I don’t know for sure in this case, but sometimes your head is partly in the water when you make a play, and you don’t hear the whistle. We should have done a better job yelling at him so he knew.”

Jeremy Laster was guarding Grantham at the time. He backed off the pressure after the foul was called and that gave Grantham an opening.

“I heard it clearly, that’s why I dropped off,” Laster said.

The victory gave Stanford Coach Dante Dettamanti his seventh NCAA title.

“It gets sweeter every time,” Dettamanti said. “Winning an NCAA title is the greatest feeling in the world. There’s nothing like it.”

Stanford last won a title in 1986, and was runner-up in 1992 and in 1990.

USC finished the season 19-9.

In the third-place game, California defeated UC Irvine, 14-6. Cal (18-10) had advanced to the final the previous seven years.

In the fifth-place game, Pacific defeated Massachusetts, 16-5. Massachusetts (21-6) became the first East Coast school to defeat a West Coast school in the NCAA tournament when it beat UC San Diego (19-11) in the fifth-place semifinal Saturday.

In the seventh-place game, Navy (21-7) defeated UC San Diego, 20-17.