USC
UC Santa Barbara (MPSF First Round)
No. 1 USC Moves Into MPSF Semis
November 23, 2007 | Men's Water Polo
Nov. 23, 2007
BERKELEY, CALIF. - The top-ranked USC men's water polo team secured a semifinal appearance at the 2007 MPSF Tournament with a 10-7 win over seventh-seeded UC Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon in Berkeley. The Trojan victory puts USC up against No. 3 seed Stanford in a 3:30 p.m. semifinal on Saturday (Nov. 24) at Cal's Spieker Aquatic Complex. This will be the fourth time this season the Trojans and the Cardinal have faced. USC has won the past three meetings this year: 9-5 in the NorCal Tournament semifinals, 7-2 in MPSF play, and 11-6 in the SoCal Tournament championship.
Seeded No. 2 in the tournament with a 6-2 finish in MPSF regular-season play, the Trojans are aiming to claim the tournament title and an automatic bid into the 2007 NCAA Tournament. USC last won the MPSF crown in 2005 when the Trojans went on to win the NCAA championship. In 2006, USC fell to Cal in the MPSF final and later in the NCAA title match.
This year, USC worked its overall record to 16-2 with Friday's win over UC Santa Barbara. For the third straight game, sophomore Matt Sagehorn led the Trojans in scoring, dishing up his ninth straight multiple-goal effort with a hat trick against the Gauchos. J.W. Krumpholz, Tommy Corcoran and Drew Vyn each tallied a pair of goals to further the Trojans' cause, and Justin Rappel also scored to help lift USC into the MPSF semis.
After a tight first half, the Trojans opened up a 3-3 halftime lockup by outscoring UC Santa Barbara 5-0 in the third frame. While the Trojan defense - anchored by senior goalie Adam Shilling, who had four saves in the match - shut down the Gauchos, USC worked out to an 8-3 lead. Vyn scored a pair during that third-period surge. UCSB managed to eat into the lead during the fourth, but two more USC goals helped secure the Trojans' advantage.
#1 USC 10, #7 UC Santa Barbara 7
USC 1 - 2 - 5 - 2 -- 10
UCSB 2 - 1 - 0 - 4 -- 7
SCORING:
USC - Matt Sagehorn 3, J.W. Krumpholz 2, Tommy Corcoran 2, Drew Vyn 2, Justin Rappel.
UCSB - Ross Sinclair 4, Milos Golic 2, Ratko Paunovic.
SAVES: Adam Shilling (USC) 4, Will Cherashore (USC) 2, Rick Wright (UCSB) 11.
