Farm Report

SPORTS: SPORTS NOTEBOOK   Paddling Hard Toward the NCAAs For Stanford swimmers, winning the Pac-10 championship is practically as routine as the early morning workouts. The men have taken the title for 18 consecutive years and the women for 13. But that doesn't mean the Cardinal is exempt from competition. Early in the season, the men lost a meet to Texas before beating San Francisco State and the University of British Columbia. The women, led by senior Catherine Fox, won their first three meets. But they have a small roster, which could make it harder to succeed at the national championships. The next big test for both teams is a home meet against Arizona State and Arizona at the end of January.   On the Way: Fresh Talent for the Cardinal Lured by a chance to combine top athletics and academics, high school stars continue to make early commitments to play on the Farm. The standouts who have signed letters of intent to enter in the fall of 2000 include: Matt Lottich, a high school All-America basketball player from Winnetka, Ill.; Nicole Powell, a basketball star from Phoenix, named the top junior in the nation in 1999; and Erica Sorgi, a six-time senior national champion diver from Mission Viejo, Calif. The Cardinal is also picking up Nick Robinson, a basketball player from Liberty, Mo., who originally signed a letter of intent in November 1997, but deferred admission to do a two-year Mormon mission in Brazil.   NCAA Final: Men's Water Polo Falls Short At halftime, Stanford's men's water polo team was up by two -- within spitting distance, it seemed, of an NCAA championship. But UCLA star Sean Kern proved to be too much for the Cardinal. He scored twice in just two minutes in the third period and a third time later in the half, leading the top-ranked Bruins to a 6-5 victory over second-ranked Stanford (22-6) on December 5. "We lost some of our intensity," says Stanford coach Dante Dettamanti. "We had some shots, but we couldn't score when we needed a goal in the second half."   For Men's Soccer, a Four-Overtime Heartbreaker It was a disappointing end to the season. The Stanford men's soccer team (12-4-3), which made it to the NCAA finals last year, was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament in a tense game against Bay Area rival Santa Clara on November 19. After the second half ended with the score tied, 2-2, the teams played four overtime periods -- and then went to a shoot-out. Five players from each team made their shots. Then Santa Clara sank its sixth, and the Broncos' goalkeeper stepped up to block the Cardinal's sixth shot, taken by sophomore Derek Shanahan.