Troubled UCLA Prevails

Considering the turmoil that surrounds the UCLA men’s water polo team, it was no surprise that the Bruins didn’t produce the expected walk-over against California in Sunday’s championship game of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament.

But UCLA got the job done, beating the Bears, 6-5, at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Center to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Final Four, which begins Saturday at Pepperdine.

Pepperdine’s 8-7 upset victory in the third-place game over previously top-ranked UC Irvine appears to make USC the odds-on favorite for the lone Final Four wild-card spot because the Trojans, who beat Stanford, 7-6, in the fifth-place game, appear to meet more of the mathematical criteria used by the NCAA.

UCLA (21-3) knew it needed to win Sunday to advance. As many as 18 Bruin wins may be declared forfeits, after Bruin All-American Adam Wright, of Seal Beach, was determined to be ineligible by a court because of a paperwork problem.