USC eyes redemption in MPSF Tournament


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The No. 4 USC men’s water polo team ended the regular season losing three of its last four games, though the Trojans can redeem themselves with a strong performance in the upcoming MPSF tournament held Friday through Sunday at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.

USC will kick off the tournament facing No. 5 Stanford on Friday. Semifinals will be played on Saturday and the championship on Sunday. The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament on Dec. 5 and 6.

“It’s been a quick season,” junior Blake Edwards said before practice on Tuesday. “We’ve covered a lot this season. This week there’s not too much work that needs to be done. Just about putting everything together.”

The Men of Troy are 2-1 against the Cardinal in three matches this season. They lost to Stanford 6-5 in the NorCal Tournament on Sept. 20, but beat them in a regular season match in overtime 12-8 on Oct. 3 at home. A week later, they won 9-6 over the Cardinal in the SoCal Invitational Semifinal.

USC is familiar with what Stanford brings to the table.

“We played them three times already this year” said sophomore driver Grant Stein. “We know what to look for. We’ve already prepared for everything. We’re re-watching our videos, going through their center plays, what they do on offense, what they do on defense. I think we’ll be ready for it.”

In order to win the MPSF, USC will likely have to get past the three teams ranked ahead of them: UCLA, Pacific and Cal. Coincidentally, the Trojans’ last three losses have come against those teams, including a rough 11-6 defeat in Westwood on Sunday.

The Trojans will have to put all that behind them and focus on the grueling weekend ahead.

“We take what our coach is telling us, and we keep saying ‘next play,’” Stein said. “We forget about the past. We learn from our mistakes in the past — what we did wrong and what we can do better. We use that to our advantage going into future games.”

Edwards noted they were able to take away some good from the losses.

“We have to put it behind us,” he said. “Unfortunately we haven’t been in much form lately but we have gained a lot of positives out of each game. We’ve actually learned quite a lot from the losses.”

Last season, the Trojans finished fourth in the MPSF Tournament, losing to Stanford in the semifinal and UCLA in the third place game. That tournament was held in Long Beach; this year’s will be at USC, giving the Trojans a distinct advantage over the nine visiting teams.

Still, playing three games in three days will be a challenge.

“It’s definitely going to be tiring,” Stein said. “These are three of the most important games of the season. There’s definitely going to be a high pace. Lots of hard work is going to be needed to win.”

The tournament kicks off at 8:30 a.m. on Friday with a play-in game between UC Irvine and San Jose State and will end with the championship match on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. USC will square off against Stanford at 11:30 a.m. on Friday.