Familiar Foes Meet at NCAA Water Polo

Loyola Marymount and Indiana will try today at UC San Diego to make sure the NCAA women’s water polo championship match isn’t a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rematch.

Indiana (26-9) meets defending champion Stanford (20-2) in a semifinal at 1:30 and Loyola Marymount (23-8) plays UCLA (21-4) in the other at 3 p.m. The final is at 3 p.m. Sunday.

UCLA and Stanford have met in the championship game the past two years, but Bruin Coach Adam Krikorian isn’t taking anything for granted.

“They’re a very talented team,” he said of LMU. “They have a very good goalie [Rachel Riddell] and one of the best freshmen in the country in Katie Hicks. You can’t take them lightly at all.”

Hicks leads the Lions with 51 goals. Teresa Guidi, the Western Water Polo Assn. player of the year, has 30 goals and a team-leading 56 steals.

LMU has lost both of its games against UCLA this season, 12-5 and 7-4, but Lion Coach John Loughran is confident his team has “closed the gap.”

“This LMU team is much better than last year,” Loughran said. “We are approaching this game like we have nothing to lose.”

Top-ranked Stanford is 3-1 against UCLA this season, including a thrilling 3-2 five-overtime victory to win the MPSF title April 27.

“No question, it’s a great, great rivalry,” Krikorian said. “I’ve never seen or been a part of a game like that as far as length goes. The longer the game went, the more tired the teams were. It was very emotional.”

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Cal State Fullerton’s 8-3 baseball victory over USC Monday night will be remembered more for the atmosphere surrounding the game at Edison Field.

Fullerton shortstop Justin Smyres said there were many wide eyes when the team took the field for pregame warmups.

“We were all pumped up to play on the same field that the big leaguers play on,” Smyres said. “In the first inning, I had some jitters. I got some goose bumps.”

USC catcher Jeff Clement, who hit a double off the right-center field fence, said he could get comfortable playing in a major league stadium.

“Oh, I’d love to come back here,” he said. “I’d love to play here for 15 years.”

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USC senior Mikaela Parmlid and UCLA sophomore Charlotte Mayorkas were selected to the Pac-10 all-conference first team in women’s golf. UCLA juniors Steve Conway and John Merrick earned men’s first-team honors and first-year Bruin Coach O.D. Vincent was chosen conference coach of the year.... Cal State Bakersfield finished third in the NCAA Division II West Regional men’s golf championships at Littleton, Colo.... UCLA’s Tobias Clemens and Marcin Matkowski were chosen Pac-10 co-players of the year in men’s tennis.... The Pac-10 decathlon and heptathlon titles will be contested today and Sunday at USC’s Loker Stadium. Events begin at 2 p.m. today and noon Sunday.