No. 8 UCSD Splits Results on First Day of Kap7 NorCal Tournament

STOCKTON, Calif. - Joe Dietrich scored three times as the eighth-ranked UC San Diego men's water polo team opened up the first day of the 2014 Kap7 NorCal Classic Tournament hosted by Pacific with a 10-9 win over No. 10 UC Irvine. UCSD then fell to No. 1 Stanford, 13-6, in a quarterfinal in its second contest of the day.

Game One - No. 8 UCSD 10, No. 10 UCI 9

UCSD (3-4) came out of the gates fast with Dietrich scoring a goal on the first Triton posession. UCI (8-2) answered back with a goal of its own from Jacob Mourer to tie the game at one. Josh Stiling gave the Tritons the 2-1 lead with 3:47 left in the first quarter and UCSD never looked back. Lukas Syka scored and Dietrich found the back of the cage again to end the first frame.

The Tritons would use goals from Dietrich, Stiling, Matt Michalko and Thomas Higginson in the second quarter to go into halftime with an 8-4 lead.

UCI would try to mount a comeback in the second half as they outscored the Tritons 5-2. With 2:55 left in the game, UCI's Larson Pfeil scored a goal to close the gap at one. The Anteaters would fall short as the Triton defense came through and UCSD hung on for the one point win. David Higginson and Luca De Vivo were the only Tritons able to score after halftime.

The Anteaters were led by Mourer, Kyle Trush and Matt Skinner who had two goals each.

Cameron Ravanbach had nine saves for the Tritons.

Game Two - No. 1 Stanford 13, No. 8 UCSD 6

A rough first half saw the Tritons trailing top-ranked Stanford 8-1 at halftime. The Cardinal (5-0) shut out the UCSD for much of the first half as Stanford goalkeeper Drew Holland amassed seven saves during that time.

The Cardinal scored eight unanswered before Stiling was able to get one past Holland with 1:18 to go before halftime.

UCSD would have a better performance in the second half as they went goal-for-goal against Stanford, but were not able to close any amount of the seven-point gap to fall 13-6.

The Cardinal were led by Bret Bonani's four goals. Holland ended the game with 14 saves.

Ravanbach totaled eight saves.

The Tritons will finish up the Kap7 NorCal Classic Tournament on Sunday, taking on No. 5 Long Beach State in a consolation semifinal at 8 a.m. at UOP's Chris Kjeldsen Pool. They will have a fourth and final game later in the day. Both can be viewed live online here.

For results from all Kap7 NorCal Classic Tournament contests and a full schedule of Sunday's match-ups, click here.

GAME ONE
UCSD 4 4 1 1 - 10
UCI 2 2 3 2 - 9

Goals
UCSD: Joe Dietrich 3, Josh Stiling 2, Lukas Syka, Matt Michalko, Thomas Higginson, David Higginson, Luca De Vivo

UCI: Matt Skinner 2, Kyle Trush 2, Jacob Mourer 2, Brendan Duffy, Jared Osborn, Larson Pfeil

Saves
UCSD: Cameron Ravanbach 9
UCI: Daylan Peterson 3, Byron Rivers 2