Men’s water polo faces No. 10 Pepperdine tonight

The No. 2 USC men’s water polo team (20-2, 4-2) will dive into the McDonald’s Swim Stadium pool for the last time this season tonight in a 5 p.m. conference match against No. 10 Pepperdine (9-12, 1-5).

Although the game is a conference matchup, seeding will not be at stake as the Trojans’ earlier 13-4 win against the Waves was already counted toward the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings. Cal has, for all intents and purposes, sewn up the No. 1 seed with an undefeated MPSF record and a win over USC, but the No. 2 seed is still up for grabs as Stanford only has a one-game lead over the Trojans, who are currently entrenched in third place.

In order to make such a move a possibility, however, the Trojans must first sweep their remaining MPSF games after Pepperdine.

“Seeding is very important to us, but I don’t think we have a realistic chance to be No. 1,” USC coach Jovan Vavic said. “Berkeley would have to lose three games for us to be in front of them, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. There’s a possibility to be No. 2, but that’s out of our control.”

What this game will count toward, as always, is NCAA rankings. Despite sporting a sub-.500 winning percentage, the Waves are still ranked in the top-10 team — a commentary on the relative strength of the MPSF compared to other NCAA water polo conferences.

Vavic identified the Waves’ outside shooters as a key area of focus for his team, as the Trojans will try to contain an offense that has averaged 9.52 goals per game.

“They’re pretty strong on the outside shooting with (Nate) Castillo and Danny White,” Vavic said. “We have to be careful about the matchups to make sure that we don’t give up easy shots from some of their really good outside shooters.”

Pepperdine sophomores James Perry and Spencer Hamby will also test the Trojans’ strength in the two-meters, as they, along with Castillo and White, are offensive leaders for the Waves.

Coming off perhaps their most impressive and emotional win of the season, the Trojans cannot afford any letdowns for the rest of the season. They are peaking at an opportune time, but must sustain a high level of play.

“The win against UCLA was huge, but in the big picture, it’s just one more step toward our ultimate goal,” redshirt sophomore driver Michael Rosenthal said. “We’re still trying to get better, obviously. I hope we haven’t peaked yet because we have to be at our best to succeed in the postseason.”

Not to be forgotten amid the playoff discussion is that today will be the last opportunity for USC students to see their Trojans play live, as the MPSF and NCAA championships will be hosted by Stanford and Cal, respectively.

As for why fans should come out to cheer on the Trojans today, Rosenthal provided several reasons.

“For UCLA we had a crazy crowd and it really fired us up,” he said. “It’s our last home game of the year, we’ve won back-to-back national championships and it’ll be worth watching. It’s our seniors’ last home game and it would be awesome to send them off well.”