USC finishes second in NCAA championship match

The No. 4 men’s water polo team placed in second in the previously postponed 2020 NCAA Championship after a 1 point loss to No. 3 UCLA Sunday afternoon at home. Despite the loss, from Friday evening on up to the finals, the Trojans rekindled the championship-winning team spirit that defines them as one of the best programs in the world and earned them their 16th-straight NCAA appearance. 

The tournament kicked off with a tilt against Bucknell that started with a huge offensive push out of the gate from the Trojans that led to an early 6-0 lead and resulted in another six points of production in the third. 

Scores from junior 2-meter Jake Ehrhardt, with a game-high five points, and hat tricks from freshmen driver Carson Kranz and 2-meter Tony Nardelli would color the rest of the game, even as the Bison would bring back their total to 9 to make it 18-9 at the finish.

Having a lot of different players clock time in the early semifinal matchup proved advantageous for the Trojans heading into Saturday’s game against first seeded Cal.

The nailbiter of a quarterfinal tipped off with a back-and-forth rally that would continue until the fourth, where the Trojans hit a five-point streak that would eventually secure their 12-10 win. Ehrhardt and Kranz showed up again with four and three goals, respectively, but it was sophomore driver Marcus Longton that held the fourth down for the Trojans.

Even more critical was the Trojans’ defensive effort against the Bears. Junior goalie Nic Porter’s energy was unstoppable after allowing two early 5-meter penalty shots in, hitting huge blocks one after the other until the game’s finish. His spirit was also infectious, pumping the team up in the water and out, with one of the best moments of the game being a fist bump and a “see what I told you” to teammate Chris Agliozzo after the redshirt freshman driver’s first-half zinger.

The USC squad knew that maintaining steadfast energy from the Cal game would be critical to their performance in the finals, after third-seeded UCLA upset the reigning champion third-seeded Stanford.

“That’s one of the things we stress in our program, is you play a role in this team, and you play to the best of your ability,” Porter said after USC’s win against Cal. “And yeah, in particular, like our young guys, and they … everyone just stepped up, and it felt like such a cohesive team performance.”

Sunday afternoon’s title match was too quiet for a USC team that is used to a full Uytengsu Aquatics Center with friends, family and teammates cheering them on. It stayed quiet as the Bruins lept to a three-point lead in the first half. 

The energy faltered at several points with calls from referees deeming just-there shots as goals and what seemed like an exclusion rally on every drive. When the Trojans did have chances on man-up coverage, the shots were often blocked by defensive post-ups on the Bruins’ side. 

When Ehrhardt was kicked out of the game in the fourth with three exclusions to his number, USC had to fall back from their game plan of a hard press against a very active UCLA offense, giving Bruins attackers Jake Cavano and senior Nicolas Saveljic the opportunity to shoot a few in from the outside. 

“So we kind of decided not to run a regular press, like we did in the past against UCLA, in their centers,” head coach Marko Pintaric said. “So we have to start talking a little more and not allow better position for the opponent. But yeah, so that was the adjustment that we set on the bench, we’re going to try … communicate protecting ourselves versus players driving in.”

Pintaric frequently reiterates that water polo is a game of inches, and these words haunted USC’s last quarter against UCLA. Senior driver Jacob Mercep and Kranz, among others, worked to cut down the Trojans’ deficit, but ultimately, the Bruins scored one-point too many for USC to overcome.

The Trojans had more losses this season than ever before, finishing their run at 8-9 overall and 3-7 in conference. But it would be too easy to blame this on the coronavirus or not having Olympic hopefuls Hannes Daube and Marko Vavic on the roster this season. 

What USC showed in its last rally of this season, especially from the underclassmen, was that the time is now to build the team rapport that gave them huge wins over Cal in the championship and UCLA during the regular season.

“I’m very proud of my team,” Porter said at the final post-game conference. “Like my captain Luke [Wyatt] said, we lost more games [than] we ever had before, and we still made it to an NCAA final and pushed UCLA right to the end. In particular, young guys, this is a great experience for them, a great learning experience. And, you know, we’re on it, and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in the preseason training whenever that is and working towards going one step further in the fall.”

If the Trojans are able to do this, there’s nothing stopping them next season, whenever that may be.