Irvine to Face Stanford or UCSB

UC Irvine, ranked No. 1 in the country, opens play Friday in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s water polo tournament, but the Anteaters have to wait to see who they will face.

The nine-team tournament at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Center begins at 10:30 a.m. with Stanford playing UC Santa Barbara. The winner faces Irvine at 6:30 p.m.

The single-elimination tournament continues Saturday and Sunday, with the winner earning the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA final four.

“There is one wild card available,” Irvine Coach Ted Newland said. “This tournament is tough, so it pretty much depends on how the brackets play out and which team does well as to whether another MPSF goes.”

Friday’s first-round pairings:

10:30 a.m.--Stanford vs. UC Santa Barbara; 1 p.m.--California vs. Long Beach State; 2:30 p.m.--USC vs. Pepperdine; 5 p.m.--UCLA vs. Pacific; 6:30 p.m.--UC Irvine vs. Stanford-UC Santa Barbara winner.