College Roundup: UCI in NCAA semis

WOMEN’S WATER POLO

UC Irvine 8, Loyola Marymount 6

SAN DIEGO — The No. 4-seeded Anteaters advanced to Saturday’s semifinal against No. 1-seeded Stanford by topping the Lions in the NCAA Championship at San Diego State on Friday.

UCI (25-6) has won four straight and 13 of its last 14. Coach Dan Klatt’s squad lost at Stanford, 17-5, on March 3.

The teams meet Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

The Cardinal (24-2) topped Pomona-Pitzer, 17-5, in a quarterfinal Friday. Second-seeded UCLA (22-3) will meet No. 3 seed USC (22-5) in the other semifinal at 5:15 p.m. The Bruins downed Iona, 14-3, and USC defeated Princeton, 14-2, on Friday.

Jessy Cardey and Hannah Croghan scored two goals in UCI’s victory Friday. The Anteaters led 3-1 after one quarter and 6-4 at halftime.

Each team scored a pair of goals in the third quarter for an 8-6 UCI lead and both squads went scoreless in the fourth with goalkeeper Jillian Yocum and the Anteater defense making big plays late in the game. Yocum recorded 13 saves in the contest.

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BASEBALL

UC Irvine 5, Cal State Northridge 3

NORTHRIDGE — Sophomore Andrew Thurman won his fifth straight start and freshman catcher Jerry McClanahan was two for four with two runs batted in, including the game-winner, to lift the visiting Anteaters in the first of a three-game Big West Conference series on Friday.

Thurman (7-2), who had allowed two earned runs in his previous 35 innings, allowed three earned runs on nine hits in seven innings.

But, UCI erased a 3-1 deficit with three runs in the sixth to win the 29th opener in its last 30 conference series and improve to 28-18, 12-7 in conference.

Freshman Connor Spence was one for two with two RBIs, senior Jordan Fox was one for four with one RBI and senior Tommy Reyes was two for five with two runs for the Anteaters.

Race Parmenter posted his eighth save for UCI.

CSUN is 20-24, 7-9.

The series continues Saturday at 1 p.m.

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MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

IRVINE — Sophomore Steven Melena led UC Irvine on the first day of the Big West Conference Championships at Anteater Stadium Friday.

Melena finished third in the 10,000 meters with a time of 31 minutes, 37.02 seconds to earn six team points for the ‘Eaters.

Senior Brett Matejka placed fifth in the 3,000 steeplechase with a career-best time of 9:11.55, while Alex Campbell was fifth in the high jump (6 feet, 7 inches) and Mike Kennedy placed seventh in the long jump at 23-3 ½.

Senior Charles Jock was the top qualifier for Saturday’s final in the 800 with a prelim time of 1:50.80 and Cam Mitchell also advanced to the final with a time of 1:51.85.

Senior Jacob Yowell had the fastest qualifying time in the 110 hurdles in 13.96 and he also qualified for Saturday’s final in the 400 hurdles in 52.47. Trevor Wightman also qualified in the 400 hurdles with a time of 52.87.

Kennedy qualified for the 100 final with a time of 10.77 in Friday’s prelims.

In the 1,500, UCI had three qualifiers for the final with Riley Martin (3:54.50), Nick Osborne (3:55.16 and Andrew Snyder (3:55.40).

Field events begin at 9 a.m. Saturday with the first track event at 2 p.m.