Men’s water polo to begin quest for a national title
The No. 2 men’s water polo team is looking to start the season with a splash following a disappointing loss to UCLA in the NCAA championship game last year.
The Trojans have high expectations entering the season, looking to build on its unbelievable streak of 10 consecutive NCAA title match appearances. In that time, the Trojans have been able to capture seven victories.
“We had a big streak going with the six wins in a row. That’s never been done before — that’s unbelievable,” junior driver Nick Bell said. “But that day we lost that championship and I could see it in everyone’s faces that we never want to see that happen again, so that’s definitely fueling us.”
The Trojans saw remarkable success last year after having their season get written off as a rebuilding year for a team stacked with freshmen. This year, the Trojans return nine true sophomores in a core unit that has gained valuable experience from last year’s championship run.
The team has only one player with three full years of experience: redshirt senior Mac Carden. Carden has 42 career goals as a two-meter player with 16 coming last season. He scored in 12 separate games, with four multiple goal outings.
As a three-time NCAA champion, Carden understands what the team needs to do if it hopes to regain its title.
“We pushed throughout all summer, and we’ve never wanted it more. We’re hungrier than ever right now, and that’s what keeps pushing us forward,” Carden said. “Especially with the loss we had last year in the finals, nothing really changed.”
Carden will serve as one of three Trojan captains alongside sophomore All-Americans Mihajlo Milicevic and James Walters. Though the sophomores are captains, there are certain leadership qualities that come with experience.
“Being the older guys we definitely have to take a leadership position,” Bell said of himself and the other upperclassmen. “Especially with this team, we have a lot of guys coming out of their freshman years so they only have one year of varsity experience.”
Bell has 43 career goals to his name, scoring over half of them last season. Bell earned All-American Honorable Mention honors as well as a place on the NCAA All-Tournament Second Team.
Another All-American to keep an eye on this season is sophomore goalie McQuin Baron. Baron earned All-American Second Team honors last season in a year in which he set a new record for saves in one season with 288. Baron was also a member of Team USA over the summer and helped the Americans secure their place in the 2016 Olympic Games.
Even though summer is the offseason, the team did a lot of work in preparation for the upcoming season.
“To get ready for season we did a lot of training, a lot of swimming,” Bell said. “We had a lot of scrimmage games because we have a younger, less experienced unit, so we had scrimmages against Pepperdine, Long Beach, teams like that to get guys more game time.”
Carden used the words “excited,” “anxious” and “pumped” to describe the team’s mindset as it gets ready to kick off its season.
This weekend, the team will travel to La Jolla to participate in the Triton Invitational hosted by UC San Diego.
There, they will play official games against Cal Baptist and Concordia University, while taking on MPSF foes Pepperdine and UC Irvine in exhibition matches.
Though the Trojans have traditionally dominated these teams, players insist the success is not getting to their heads.
“There’s no reason that because we’ve beaten them that we should let up,” Bell said. “We should always take every game seriously like it’s the NCAA championship.”
The Trojans will put their championship attitude to the test as they splash into the season.