NCAA WATER POLO CHAMPIONSHIPS : USC, UC Irvine, Stanford, Cal Advance--as Expected

There were no upsets during the opening round of the NCAA water polo championships at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach on Friday as California, UC Irvine, Stanford and USC advanced into tonight’s semifinal round.

Top-ranked Cal (29-0) took an 11-0 halftime lead and cruised to a 15-2 victory over Navy (18-9). Second-ranked Stanford (21-5) scored five goals in each of the last three quarters and ruined Princeton’s first trip to the tournament, 18-5. Princeton is 18-4.

Third-ranked USC, which will play Stanford tonight at 8, got six goals from two-meter man Jason Klingsberg and beat UC San Diego, 16-7.

In the toughest match of the day, fourth-ranked Irvine (20-8) advanced to face Cal tonight at 6:30 with an 11-8 victory over Pepperdine (18-10).

It was the fourth time this season that Irvine has defeated Pepperdine, none by more than three goals.

“The difference all year has been our 6-on-5 game,” Pepperdine Coach Terry Schroeder said. “They get us spread out a lot. Coming into this game, we had only scored two goals out of 26 power plays against them. Tonight, we were two of six.”

USC took a 7-1 lead over San Diego with 3:30 remaining in the second quarter, but sputtered at times after that.

Klingsberg’s final goal, with 2:25 left in the third quarter, came on a breakaway and gave the Trojans an 11-5 lead.

Two-time defending champion Cal, which has won 42 in a row, had nine players score as Coach Steve Heaston emptied his bench.

Ten players scored for Stanford, which played without two injured starters, including the team’s scoring leader, Wolf Wigo.

In consolation matches today, Pepperdine will play Navy at 3:30 p.m. and Princeton will play San Diego at 4:30 p.m.