U.S. Water Polo Team Plays Exhibition

The U.S. national water polo team will play Yugoslavia at 4 p.m. today at Newport Harbor in the Americans’ first local appearance since winning the FINA World Cup championship in May.

The exhibition game will be the fourth of a five-game series between the teams, which are considered strong contenders for the World Championship in January in Perth, Australia. Yugoslavia, runner-up to Hungary in the European Championships in August, has defeated the U.S. in the first three games, 7-6, 9-4, 9-5, in Colorado Springs.

The U.S. team, which started training together again in October, will be without five of its top players--Chris Humbert, Gavin Arroyo, Wolf Wigo, Chi Kredell and Jeremy Laster--who are playing professionally in Greece.

The final game of the series will be the second game of a doubleheader Sunday at USC. The international exhibition will follow a game between UC Irvine and USC at noon.