LA JOLLA (CNS) - UC San Diego will face top-seeded UCLA Saturday in the opening semifinal of the NCAA National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship at a sold-out Canyonview Aquatic Center at UCSD.
The fourth-seeded Tritons (16-9) qualified for the national championship by winning the Western Water Polo Association championship and advanced to the semifinals by defeating Brown, 12-7, in a play-in game last Saturday.
The Bruins (27-3) received the No. 1 seeding despite a 5-3 loss to Long Beach State in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament semifinal Nov.22.
UCSD is 2-57 against UCLA, including 13-5 and 17-5 losses this season.
The Tritons have lost their last 10 games against the Bruins, last winning in 2006.
The winner of the UCSD-UCLA semifinal will face the winner of today's Stanford-USC semifinal in Sunday's championship game. The semifinal losers will play in Sunday's third-place game.
The third-seeded Trojans (23-6) are seeking their seventh consecutive championship. The second-seeded Cardinal (25-3) is 2-0 against USC this season, including a 7-4 victory Nov. 22 in an MPSF Tournament semifinal.
The UCSD-UCLA semifinal is set to begin at 1 p.m. and the USC-Stanford semifinal at 3:12 p.m.
All of today's and Sunday's games will be streamed live on NCAA.com.