GENEVA, Ohio - The UC San Diego women's water polo team will be competing for its fourth Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) title in the past five years Sunday morning thanks to a win over Cal State Monterey Bay at the SPIRE Institute Saturday. The No. 1-seeded Tritons took down the No. 3 seed Otters, 12-8, in the semifinals of the WWPA Championship. The reigning conference champions will take on the No. 4 seed Cal State East Bay Sunday at 9 a.m. PT in a rematch of last year's championship game. UCSD is now 17-18 on the season.

"This was our goal all year, to be playing for the conference championship and a shot to make the NCAA Championship field," head coach Brad Kreutzkamp said. "We came in as the top seed and are now in a position to win a fourth title in five years."

With WWPA Player of the Year Courtney Miller in the cage, UCSD started off the match by holding CSUMB scoreless in the first quarter. Miller, who finished the day with six stops, shut out the Otters while Jolene Guiliana, Lani Tittle and Lauren Boyer all scored to give the Tritons a 3-0 advantage.

CSUMB opened up the second period with its first goal of the game from Adrianna Craft. Then with a clean pass from Guiliana, Boyer found the back of the cage and gave UCSD a 4-1 lead. But the Otters answered with back-to-back goals to cut their deficit to one at the half.

"They scored a little more than I would have liked or expected," Kreutzkamp said. "But they made some crazy lobs, got a goal on a deflection off one of out players, those things are going to happen. I never felt like we were in trouble, but in the first half I did feel like we could have built a bigger advantage."

The Tritons pulled away in the third frame. Tittle scored the first goal of the second half before CSUMB once again came within one on a goal from Kara Orr. Boyer then completed the hat trick with 4:19 left in the quarter to spark four straight goals for UCSD. Orr closed out the period with another goal, but the Tritons still had a sizable lead.

Tatiana Veloso, who recorded a hat trick, opened the final period with back-to-back scores as CSUMB found themselves within two goals of UCSD. Kistler, Guiliana and Kirkland netted the next three goals to tie UCSD's largest lead of the day. The Otters scored the final goal of the match with 2:03 left in the game. The Tritons kept the Otters quiet for the remainder of the match to hold on for the 12-8 win.

UCSD was led by Guiliana and Boyer, both of which record a hat trick in the semifinal match. Guiliana also set a career-high seven steals while dishing out three assists. Like Guiliana, Boyer also shined on defense by drawing four of the Tritons' five penalty shots for a new career high.

"The key to today was our inside game," Kreutzkamp said. "We were able to get the ball in at two-meters, draw ejections, get penalty shots, and convert them. Lauren Boyer and Jolene Guiliana were outstanding today. Lauren was the player we know she can be on both ends of the pool - she drew four of our five penalty shots. Jolene had three assists and seven steals. They both answered the call when we needed it."

The winner of Sunday's WWPA title game will earn the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship, May 8-10 at Stanford.

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