Nov. 23, 2007

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Second-seeded USC was able to break through a 3-3 halftime tie and capture a 10-7 victory over the seventh-seeded UC Santa Barbara men's water polo team Friday afternoon in the opening round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Tournamet, which is being held through Sunday at Cal's Spieker Aquatics Complex.

With the loss, UCSB falls to 18-13 on the season while USC improves to 16-2.

The Gauchos led the Trojans 2-1 after the first quarter of play, but USC tied the game up at 3-3 heading into halftime.

The Trojans came out of halftime on fire and outscored UCSB 5-0 during the third period. UCSB posted four goals to the Trojan's two in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough as USC took the 10-7 victory.

Senior driver Ross Sinclair led the Gauchos with four goals while freshman utility player Milos Golic tallied two. Senior goalkeeper Rick Wright had 11 saves.

Matt Sagehorn led the Trojan attack with a hat trick in the game while goalkeeper Adam Shilling had a team-best four saves in the cage.

The Gauchos will continue MPSF Tournament action on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. when they face the loser between sixth-seeded Pepperdine and third-seeded Stanford.

USC 10, UC Santa Barbara 7

		1	2	3	4	Final
UCSB		2	1	0	4	7
USC		1	2	5	2	10

UCSB Goals: Ross Sinclair 4, Milos Golic 2, Ratko Paunovic 1.
USC Goals: Matt Sagehorn 3, J.W. Krumpholz 2, Tommy Corcoran 2, Drew Vyn 2, Justin Rappel 1.

UCSB Saves: Rick Wright 11.
USC Saves: Adam Shilling 4, Will Cherashore 2.