No. 3 Trojans seek success at NorCal Classic
After opening the 2014 campaign with eight straight victories, the undefeated USC men’s water polo team will look to gain momentum this weekend at the Kap7 NorCal Classic before running the gauntlet in conference play next month.
Goal-asaurus Rex · Driver Rex Butler, one of only four seniors on this year’s men’s water polo team, has 12 goals in eight games this season. The Coronado, California native has four multi-goal games this season. – Ralf Cheung | Daily Trojan
Coming off sweeps of the first two tournaments of the season, the six-time defending national champion Trojans will attempt to repeat their performance in Stockton, California, where they play Air Force, whom they defeated 25-7 Sept. 14 at the Inland Empire Classic, and either No. 7 UC Santa Barbara or No. 12 Loyola Marymount Sept. 20, with the semifinals and finals of the elimination-style tournament taking place Sept. 21.
If able to advance to Sunday’s games, the squad could get an early look at the likes of rivals No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 UCLA and No. 4 California.
With the team set to face LMU, UCSB, Stanford, UCLA and Cal when official Mountain Pacific Sports Federation competition gets under way starting Sept. 27, senior driver Kostas Genidounias believes this weekend’s conference prelude will be crucial for the Trojans.
“This tournament is, in my opinion, the most important one of the year,” Genidounias said. “It’s when the tough games start, and it’s when you set the tone [for conference play].”
Following the Trojans’ victory over Air Force last weekend, the Falcons will enter the rematch at 4-5 on the season.
LMU and UCSB come into the weekend with records of 1-4 and 5-1, respectively. Stanford, UCLA and Cal are all undefeated this season at 3-0, 8-0 and 5-0, respectively.
“The preparation that everyone’s put in, all the hard work — it’s showing,” freshman two-meter Lachlan Edwards said. “There’s definitely a lot of talent in this team. We’re a young team, but if we all understand how to play together, I think we’ve got the best team in the NCAA.”
As the tournament approaches, however, head coach Jovan Vavic is not resting on his laurels. The 12-time National Coach of the Year continues to emphasize the importance of getting better over all else.
“The first thing is to really worry about the first games and then the big games,” Vavic said. “We’re focusing really on getting better each game and improving in every game. If we lose a game here and there, it’s part of the learning experience. Last season we lost four games and won a national championship — with all the experience we had last year, we still lost four games. The most important thing is to play our best water polo at the end when it counts the most.”
Having netted a team-high 25 goals thus far in 2014, Genidounias leads a Trojan frontline that has outscored its opponents by a combined total of 170-37 through eight games.
The Trojan attackers will hope to continue finding the back of the net as much as possible this weekend, as they might match up against other top scorers such as Cal’s Aleksa Sapjonic. The team’s triple-digit goal difference has come by making a good defense into the best offense, the veteran Genidounias believes.
“We’ve been playing some really good defense, not allowing too many goals,” Genidounias said. “We have a great goalie in the cage, [freshman] McQuin [Baron], and our secondary goalie [freshman] Ben [Goncharenko] — they’ve been doing a great job. Like [Vavic] likes to say, if we take care of the defense, the offense comes by itself — and we’ve been scoring a lot of goals, so I think that’s been the key to our victories so far.”
Genidounias, a three-time national champion, is confident that this year’s freshman-heavy Trojan team will have the upper hand against fellow powerhouses Stanford, UCLA and California when the time comes.
“What we have that [teams such as Stanford, UCLA and Cal] don’t have is that we know how to win at the end of the season,” Genidounias said. “We’ve been winning championships for six years now, so the difference is that we have some seniors and juniors who have actually won championships that know what it takes, and other teams don’t have that. It’s really important for us, the upperclassmen, to show the guys what it takes.”