Top-two water polo teams battle for bragging rights


The top-two women’s water polo teams in the country will face off on Saturday when No. 1 USC hosts No. 2 UCLA in the second meeting this season of the crosstown rivals.

This will be the third time the Women of Troy have faced the Bruins, first beating UCLA in February during the Triton Invitational Championship game. USC won the title with an 8-6 victory.

USC and UCLA faced off in another title match during the championship game of the UCI Invitational in late February. The Trojans came out with a 10-7 win.

“Even though we’ve already defeated UCLA earlier in the season, we need to focus on our game and play hard on offense and stop them on defense,” sophomore goalie Victoria Chamorro said.

USC has been handling teams on the defensive side of the game, allowing a MPSF-leading 4.53 goals per game. Chamorro returns as an All-American from last year and is averaging 7.2 saves in her 30 periods of play.

The other standout goalie for the Women of Troy is freshman Amanda Longan who is averaging 8.7 saves during her 32 periods in the net.

USC’s own offensive prowess has allowed them to put up double-digit goals in 11 of their games so far this season. The Women of Troy (17-0, 3-0 MPSF) are second in the conference in goals scored with 12.59 goals per game and have outscored their opponents 214-77 over the course of the season.

The leading goal-scorer for USC is junior driver Stephania Haralabidis with 46 goals — a number good enough to put her at No. 9 on the all-time goals scored list with 160 in her career. Just behind her is her sister, junior driver Ioanna Haralabidis who has scored 31 goals during the season.

“Next week we want to focus on recognizing our opportunities on offense and forcing more turnovers on defense,” Stephania Haralibidis said. “We need to keep our intensity high.”

The emphasis for USC will be on stopping UCLA’s high-powered offense. The Bruins (20-2, 3-0 MPSF) won their three games last weekend by a combined score of 61-11. Other than their two losses to USC, the Bruins have yet to lose a game this season. UCLA top-two goal scorers have each found the back of the net 32 times this season.

“We need to be patient. It’s important that we take our time and watch the goalie so we can convert as many opportunities as possible,” sophomore utility Hayley McKelvey said. “We also really need to play hard on defense.”

The two wins this season for USC snapped a losing streak of five games to UCLA including last year’s 7-9 loss in the MPSF tournament semifinals. UCLA owns the all-time record though with a 49-24 advantage over the Trojans. The rivalry game will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Uytengsu Aquatic Center.

The Women of Troy won’t stop there though. Following their game against UCLA, USC has a non-conference game with Redlands slated to begin at 2:30 p.m. The Bulldogs (5-20) recently suffered a 5-20 loss against UCLA. USC holds an 8-1 record all-time against Redlands with the most recent game being a 31-0 win last year.