COLLEGES:

The UC Irvine men’s water polo team did more than achieve its first win of the season Saturday in the NorCal Tournament, it allowed Coach Marc Hunt to begin to settle a score with UC Santa Barbara head man Wolf Wigo.

Wigo, the analyst on NBC’s coverage of the sport in the Beijing Olympics, irked the inhabitants of Crawford Hall, the hub of UCI’s athletic department, when he inexplicably failed to mention UCI, which produced four members of the U.S. team that won the silver medal.

Hunt, who said he has known Wigo, a former star at Stanford, since he was 16, believes the slight was clearly intentional, stating that the UCSB coach merely refused to cite his Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rival, so as not to heighten UCI’s profile.

“He wasn’t going to show us any love at Irvine,” Hunt said of Wigo’s selective amnesia (he regularly mentioned other schools as players’ alma maters). “He snubbed us big-time.

“But there’s got to be a way to pay the guy back,” Hunt said with a mischievous grin.

Payback began with the Anteaters’ 10-9 triumph over the Gauchos Saturday at Saint Mary’s High.

The two teams meet again Oct. 5 at UCI and Oct. 18 at UCSB.

 The unbeaten UCI men’s soccer team (6-0-2) is ranked No. 26 by College Soccer News.

The Anteaters defeated San Diego State, 2-0, Friday and San Diego, 1-0, Sunday, to win the USD Tournament.

Freshman goalie Andrew Fontein totaled seven saves to post the pair of shutouts, earn all-tournament laurels and share Big West Conference Player of the Week recognition.

Sophomore forward Spencer Thompson, senior Michael Willrich (both of whom had goals in the tournament), also were all-tournament picks, as was junior Irving Garcia.

 UCI announced its schedule for the 2009 baseball season, which begins Feb. 20 with the first of four games in three days at Hawaii.

The Anteaters, coming off a 42-18 season that ended at LSU in the Super Regionals, play 11 of their first 12 on the road, with the home opener against Loyola Marymount on March 3.

UCI will have four five-game weeks and some noteworthy dates include a three-game Big West series at Cal State Fullerton (April 3-5), a three-game home series against Tulane (March 13-15) and home dates with Oregon, coached by former Cal State Fullerton head man George Horton (April 20-21).

 Former Newport Harbor High quarterback Kasey Peters completed 36 of 56 passes for 456 yards and three touchdowns to lead Rocky Mountain College of Montana to a 27-22 win over Montana Tech Saturday.

Peters, a junior now on his fourth college team, threw for 267 yards in the first half, triggering the Battlin’ Bears’ no-huddle, spread attack. The win ended a 16-game losing streak against Montana Tech.