USC
NCAA Championships
Men's Water Polo Falls Short In Title Quest
December 02, 2000 | Men's Water Polo
Dec. 2, 2000
MALIBU - Jason Boettner scored a game-high five goals as the No. 3 seeded UC San Diego Tritons registered a 9-8 upset Saturday over the No. 2 seeded USC Trojans in a semifinal match of the 2000 NCAA Championships at Pepperdine University. UC San Diego will face the UCLA Bruins for the national championship Sunday at 2:30 p.m. while USC will face Navy at 1 p.m. in the third-place match.
The Tritons used a key third period where they scored four times. USC had a 6-5 lead, but the Tritons scored twice in the last two minutes to take the lead. The Trojans tied the match at 0:29 of the fourth period on a goal by freshman Predrag Damjanov, but UC San Diego answered with two straight goals to put the match away. USC had one last shot in the waning seconds, but the ball slipped out of Ivan Babic's hand to solidfy the win for UCSD.
"I thought UCSD had a great game," said USC Head Coach Jovan Vavic. "They were well prepared and I thought the extra week of rest they had helped them to prepare for us. We knew it was going to be a very difficult match."
"We are a very young team and I think it showed today. We made some crucial defensive mistakes and you can't afford that in this type of game."
UCSD had a 3-1 lead in the first half, but goals by Daniel Lontay and Babic tied the game at 3-3 at halftime. The third period proved to be the difference as two of the Tritons' goals came on penalty shots.
George Csaszar won all four sprints for the Trojans. Darin Smith made five saves in goal in the first half for the Trojans while Bozidar Damjanovic made two in the second half. The Trojans, who received the at-large bid for the championships, graduate only three seniors in Csaszar, Smith and Stever O'Rourke, a fact that is well embodied in Vavic's opinion of the team.
"If this team has character, I think they will be hungry all of next year," said Vavic. "This was valuable experience for them. We had a great season and no one expected us to be here. This team surpassed our expectations this year and I'm very happy."
USC is now 22-5 on the season.
UCSD 2 1 4 2 - 9 USC 1 2 3 2 - 8
UCSD - Boettner 5, Allan, Djapic, Hori, Wylie. USC - Babic 3, O'Rourke 2, Damjanov, Lontay, Praporski
Saves: USC-Darin Smith 5, Bozidar Damjanovic 2, UCSD - Glenn Busch 7
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