UC San Diego Surprises USC, Will Face No. 1 UCLA for Title

UC San Diego, a Division II school that offers no athletic scholarships, knocked off USC, 9-8, in the semifinals of the NCAA men’s water polo championships Saturday at Pepperdine.

The Tritons will face top-seeded and defending national champion UCLA in today’s championship game at 2:30 p.m.

The Bruins defeated Navy, 12-5, in the other semifinal.

Denny Harper, who has been UC San Diego’s coach since 1980, was ecstatic.

“This was an amazing win, absolutely awesome,” he said. “Without a doubt this was the greatest win of my career. It was truly David slaying Goliath.”

Senior Jason Boettner scored five goals for the Tritons and goalie Glenn Busch made seven saves. Busch’s biggest and best save came with 55 seconds to play and secured USC’s fate.

“That was huge,” Harper said.

USC Coach Jovan Vavic changed goalies at halftime, pulling senior Darin Smith in favor of freshman Bozidar Damjanovic.

Smith made five saves and gave up three goals. Damjanovic made two saves and gave up six goals.

“I wanted to give both goalies the experience of playing in a final four,” Vavic said. “I don’t know if that was the right decision now.”

But Smith wasn’t complaining.

“I can’t really say I’m disappointed [by not getting to play in the second half],” he said. “I’m disappointed we lost the game, but we had a great season and I’ve loved every minute of playing water polo for USC.”

The Trojans (22-5) had given up only 32 third-period goals. They gave up four Saturday.

The Tritons (21-8) qualified for the final four by defeating Loyola Marymount, 10-5, on Nov. 19, giving them two weeks to prepare. USC had one week.

“We prepared solely for USC,” Harper said, “while I bet USC was looking hard at UCLA. We’ve got some work to do tonight because we had not looked at UCLA at all.”

What they saw in Saturday’s first game was a Bruin team that dominated Navy (24-11).

Eight Bruins scored and all 16 players on the roster got into the game. After Navy scored first, UCLA led, 7-1, at halftime. Its lead was 11-1 after three quarters.

Navy was trying to become the first school from outside California to reach the championship game.

“We were just psyched to be here,” Navy Coach Mike Skofield said. “We saw why UCLA is the No. 1 team in the nation. The experience and capabilities of the UCLA team were too much for us.”

Navy goalie Nick Hill of Long Beach, a transfer from UCLA, gave up 11 goals but also made 11 saves.

The Bruins, actually 22-3 but 18-7 counting four forfeits, will be trying to win their seventh title today.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championships

At Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool, Pepperdine:

SEMIFINALS

Saturday

* UCLA 12, Navy 5

* UC San Diego 9, USC 8

FINALS

Today

* Third-place game: Navy (24-11) vs. USC (22-5), 1 p.m.

* Championship game: UCLA (18-7)* vs. UC San Diego (21-8), 2:30 p.m.

*--Record includes four forfeits