BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

The UC Irvine men’s water polo team is ranked No. 5 in the National Collegiate Top 20 Preseason Poll released by the Collegiate Water Polo Association.

The Anteaters made the largest leap of any team from last season as UCI was ranked 11th in the final 2006 poll.

USC is the top-ranked team in the preseason rankings, defending champion Cal is second, UCLA third and Stanford fourth.

UCI Coach Marc Hunt has a veteran team that features the return of eight of last year’s top nine scorers, led by senior Colin Mello, who notched 87 goals in 2006. Senior Matt Garcia returns in goal after recording 314 saves in 31 starts last season when the Anteaters were 10-21 overall.

Also back for UCI this season are redshirt seniors Tim Hutten and Cole Bitter. Hutten was a second-team All-American in 2005 when he scored 64 goals and Bitter scored 24 goals that season.

The Anteaters are ranked fourth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation preseason poll.

— From staff reports