UCLA, Stanford Favorites for Championship

Top-seeded UCLA, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation champion, will meet fourth-seeded Massachusetts today in the first round of the NCAA water polo tournament at UC San Diego.

Second-seeded Stanford, which was defeated by UCLA in last week’s MPSF final, will play third-seeded UC San Diego at 3 p.m. in the four-team tournament.

The winners from today will meet Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in the championship final.

The third-place game will be played Sunday at noon.

The Bruins (20-3), who won championships in 1995 and ‘96, will be going for their fifth national title since the tournament began in 1969.

Senior Matt Armato and junior Sean Kern, first team all-conference players, will lead the Bruins. Kern leads UCLA with 47 goals. Armato, who was named the MVP of last week’s conference tournament, has 40, including a school-record six two-pointers.

Massachusetts (28-5) won its berth in today’s tournament by defeating St. Francis, 10-7, in the final of the Collegiate Water Polo Assn. UC San Diego (19-10) won the Western Water Polo Assn. championship by defeating Air Force, 10-7.

Guy Baker, who co-coaches the Bruins with Adam Krikorian, said last week that he wouldn’t be surprised if his team meets Stanford in the final.

Last week at the MPSF tournament finals at UC Irvine, Blake Wellen scored the winner for UCLA in the last second of overtime.

“I just don’t believe this is the last time we’ll have to play them this year,” Baker said then. after the Bruins win. “They’re just too good.”

Stanford (21-5) is led by Brian Heifferon, the MPSF player of the year. He has 36 goals for the year. Tied with UCLA with the most tournament appearances with 23, the Cardinal’s eight national crowns are second only to Cal, which has 11.