Kuga, Cole, de L’Arbre battle for NCAA title

Former local prep water polo standouts Kevin Kuga, Jeff Cole and Dave de L’Arbre will be competing in this weekend’s men’s NCAA Water Polo Championships, being held in Princeton, New Jersey.

UCLA (22-6) and Loyola Marymount (19-7) meet in one semifinal and USC (24-2) and Princeton (15-11)  in the other. The championship game, set for Saturday at 11 a.m. PSD, will be televised on CBS College Sports Network.

Cole, a junior, and de L’Arbre, a senior, are both starters at Princeton. Cole leads the Tigers with 31 ejections drawn and recorded 15 goals on the season. L’Arbre posted 22 steals, 10 assists and 10 goals in 26 games played. The pair were also teammates at Santa Barbara High, where they each won a CIF title.

Kuga, a red-shirt junior who graduated from Dos Pueblos in 2006, has 11 goals for UCLA this season. The Bruins, who won last week’s MPSF Tournament as the fourth seed to automatically qualify, last won an NCAA title in 2004.