Women’s water polo heads to La Jolla for tournament


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Fresh off two convincing wins to start their 2016 campaign, the No. 2 USC women’s water polo team will travel to La Jolla to play in the Triton Invitational this weekend.

The Trojans will square off against Santa Clara at 8 a.m. Saturday and the winner of the UC San Diego-Indiana game at 2:40 p.m. If USC comes away with both wins Saturday, they will advance to the semifinals at 12:30 p.m. Sunday and to the championship at 5:50 p.m. the same day.

In order to claim the title, the Women of Troy will likely have to get past top-ranked UCLA in the championship match.

“We’ve been conditioning hard and working on our team chemistry to get ready for big games,” junior two-meter Brigitta Games said. “This weekend will test our hard work.”

The Trojans will lean on junior two-meter Avery Peterson, one of their captains and the leading scorer in the conference, averaging 4.5 goals per game early on in the season.

“It gives me confidence knowing I can come out and score, but I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates with setting me up with those opportunities,” Peterson said. “I’m thankful for them being a part of this team.”

Pre-season NCAA and MPSF women’s water polo is in full force after a packed weekend of match-ups. While USC took down UC San Diego and Whittier this past weekend, top-ranked Stanford fell to the No. 2 spot after losing to Cal 5-2 in Stanford’s own tournament.

Following the upset, UCLA and USC have both taken over the No. 1 and 2 spots, respectively, in the rankings. The Trojans outscored UC San Diego and Whittier by a combined score a 45-6.

“Our goal was to focus on defense and keep the other team to a low score,” Peterson said. “When we have good defense, it helps produce our offensive game.”

Heading into this week, the Trojans hope to cling on to their top two spot. The Women of Troy faced off with the Brazilian national team Wednesday to get ready for the weekend games.

Last season, USC won the Triton Invitational, sweeping four opponents and beating UC Irvine 10-5 in the title match.