LOS ANGELES, Calif.-  The No. 1 seeded UC San Diego men's water polo team advanced to the Western Water Polo Association semifinals with a 13-9 win over Whittier on Thrusday afternoon at Loyola Marymount.  The Tritons (23-7) will face Redlands in the semifinals, a team UCSD lost to in last year's WWPA semifinals.  Against Whittier, the Tritons were tied with the Poets at halftime and led by a slim 7-6 margin after three.  UCSD then outscored Whittier 6-3 in the final quarter for the win.  Brandon Borso led UCSD with four goals, three coming in the fourth period.  Chris Finegold scored three times while Chris Eichholz and Jonathan Hopkins scored twice apiece.

UCSD never trailed in the match as they jumped out to a 4-2 lead after the first quarter.  Borso, Hopkins, Finegold and Jesse Casellini netted scores for UCSD.

In the second quarter UCSD's Adnan Jerkovic scored as it looked like the Tritons would pull away with a 5-2 lead at the 4:48 mark.  The Poets scored three times before halftime with goals at 2:15, 1:16 and 0:45, to enter the break knotted at 5-5.

The Tritons' Eichholz scored to put UCSD back ahead at 6-5 and added another goal with 4:11 left to extend the Triton lead to 7-5.  Whittier scored before the end of the quarter to bring the match back to a one-goal game at 7-6.

Borso then gave the Tritons a more comfortable lead with back-to-back goals at 5:56 and 5:12, for the UCSD 9-6 lead.  Whittier would later cut the lead down to 10-8, but Finegold and Borso put home goals to give the Tritons the 12-8 lead with 2:52 remaining.  The teams would each add one more goal for the final, 13-9, UCSD.

UCSD is back in action on Friday, November 18, taking on 19th-ranked Redlands at 12:30 p.m.  The match will be played on the LMU campus.