Women’s water polo dominates weekend tournament


USC’s 21-0 rout over Concordia Saturday marked senior goalie Amanda Longan’s fourth career shutout. (Emily Smith/Daily Trojan)

The No. 1 USC women’s water polo team maintained its undefeated streak at the CBU Mini Invitational in Riverside on Saturday with two shutout victories against Concordia University and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Twelve Trojans scored in the first game of the doubleheader as USC, which holds a record of 8-0, beat Concordia uncontested 21-0. It was a well-rounded attack: Freshman 2-meter Mireia Guiral led the team with 4 points, while freshmen utility Bayley Weber, 2-meter Tilly Kearns, freshman driver Alejandra Aznar, sophomore driver Sabrina Garabet and junior utility Maud Megens all finished the game with multiple goals.

Junior driver Denise Mammolito, sophomore driver Paige Hauschild, junior driver Kelsey McIntosh, freshman 2-meter Julia Rozolis-Hill, freshman utility Claire Haas and freshman driver Sophia Lucas all contributed points as well.

Senior goalie Amanda Longan anchored the Trojan defense with nine saves. The game marked Longan’s fourth career shutout.

“As a goalie, it’s really important to run the defense as best as I can because I can see things as they go on from a better angle [than the other players] can, so I make myself talk and be vocal the whole time so that I’m occupied,” Longan said.

The Trojans continued their strong momentum on both offense and defense in the second game of the day, securing a 23-0 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Thirteen Trojans scored in the victory, led by Anzar with 4 points. Sophomore driver Verica Bakoc, Hauschild, Megens, Guiral, freshman driver Grace Tehaney and sophomore driver Kari Jensen also scored multiple times. Junior driver Elise Stein, Weber, Mammolito, McIntosh, Rozolis-Hill and Kearns notched points as well.

Junior goalie Holly Parker manned the net with five saves, securing her first career shutout.

Although the Trojans dominated in both games, Longan said that they can always find ways to improve their performance.

“I think adjusting to switch ups so when we call something, and then the other team counters that with something a little trickier [could be improved],” she said. “Making that adjustment faster is something we could do better.”

Mammolito said the team could bring more attention to its decision-making during games.

“There were a few passes that we made that weren’t great, and at times we forced things, but for the most part, I think that we made the right decisions and executed,” she said.

USC was successful at implementing the defenses they have been working on in practice and also pushing the counter attack and finishing high opportunity shots, according to Mammolito.

Longan said communication was also key in the two victories on Saturday.

“I think something for us that we did better that we hadn’t in previous games is we communicated more, which is big especially for the younger players to use their voices,” Longan said. “That way, when [Coach Vavic] would call something, we were all on the same page, so everything functioned like a system should.”

The Trojans stay in home waters this week in an exhibition game to take on the Chinese national team, which some members of the USC women’s team have trained with in the past. The game will be played on Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center.