Stanford, California Meet Again in Final

Defending champion Stanford will meet the one team it has lost to twice this season when the Cardinal plays rival California at 1:30 today in the NCAA men’s water polo championship game at Loyola Marymount’s Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center.

The top-seeded Cardinal (23-5) stopped UC San Diego, 10-5, in one semifinal on Saturday as Mike Derse scored three of his four goals in the first half en route to a 5-1 lead. Tony Azevedo, Tommy Hopkins, Peter Hudnut, Matt Moser, Greg Crum and Peter Varellas also scored for Stanford.

Matt Ellis and Brandon Borso each scored twice for San Diego, which drew no closer than the 5-2 halftime score.

California (20-6) advanced to the final with a 14-6 victory over Queens College (N.Y.), which stayed within striking distance of the Golden Bears for most of the first half. California led, 4-3, late in the second quarter when it broke open the game with five unanswered goals spanning the second and third quarters.

Attila Banhidy led the Golden Bears with three goals and Todd Hylton added two.

Queens College (24-4) was led by Michel Vieira’s four goals.

Stanford and California have met three times with each winner claiming a one-goal victory. The Cardinal won an early season matchup, 8-7, in the SoCal tournament, but lost, 9-8, to the Golden Bears in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play and again in the conference tournament, 8-7.

“Every time we play Cal, everyone goes all out and it’s very physically and mentally challenging,” Derse said. “I couldn’t think of a better way to end the season than playing Cal.”