Men’s water polo travels to Davis


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A USC men's water polo player holds the ball over his head while looking on.
USC has jumped out to a 5-0 record on the season. They will face three top 15 schools in the nation this weekend in Davis. (Andrew Kerner | Daily Trojan)

After a 5-0 start to the season, the men’s water polo team shot up to a joint No. 1 CWPA ranking. This weekend, the Trojans will look to prove themselves against three top-15 schools in the Aggie Roundup, all of whom they’ve never lost to: No. 11 San José State, No. 14 Santa Clara and No. 8 UC Davis. 

“We’re getting ready for every opponent the same way. Be it the number one, second, third or 10th ranked team in the nation, we are always taking the same approach,” head coach Marko Pintaric said. “We are [not going] with the attitude that we already have a win.”

USC will begin the invitational Friday against the Spartans. In their most recent 2019 matchup, the Trojans finished with a 17-9 victory behind hat tricks from redshirt junior driver Hannes Daube and redshirt senior driver Jacob Mercep, who played with the Spartans his freshman year.

San José State enters the Roundup as a battle-tested 2-4 team: Half of its matches have been tightly-contested games against top eight programs. USC has never suffered defeat against the Spartans and will hope to continue its stellar defensive play, with 5.8 goals allowed per game on a .234 goal conversion rate.

“[Those are] numbers that we can say proudly. And I believe that if we keep on this run on defense, it will pay out at the end of the season,” Mercep said. “I’m hoping to see some very good defensive stops and not a lot of goals against [us].”

The matchup against Santa Clara is similar: a solid squad that has dropped games against other ranked opponents. In their two ranked matches against No. 3 Stanford and San José State, the Broncos have struggled in powerplay defense, conceding 61.1% of the time when down a player. The Trojans will look to play an aggressive attack and draw fouls Saturday.

USC will finish the weekend against the Aggie Roundup host, UC Davis. Davis enters the tournament unbeaten through five games, including a win against San José State and a 14-13 overtime victory over No. 15 Bucknell. This matchup should give a good indication of where USC stands, with a Trojan offense that scores 22.3 goals a game battling an Aggie defense that only allows a 38.7% shot conversion rate.

By the end of the weekend, Mercep could punch his ticket into the top-five of USC’s all-time scoring list. Sitting at 165 goals, the Croatian driver will likely move into sixth place, surpassing Danny Leyson, the current UC Davis head coach.

“I think that’s a nice thing to be appreciated. But all that matters is that we win a championship,” Mercep said. “Everything else is not secondary but tertiary.”

Despite entering each match this weekend as the favorite, the Trojans feel the same way about their new No. 1 ranking.

“Honestly, the numbers [and] the ranking don’t really matter,” junior driver Chris Sturtevant said. “Obviously, I think we should be number one, always. But the end goal is just to win the national championship … I’m happy wherever we are, as long as [we] win the national championship.”

The team shares that title-driven mindset, and this weekend is its first true chance to put it into practice. USC plays San José State Friday at 1 p.m. On Saturday, USC takes on Santa Clara at 11:30 a.m. and UC Davis at 4 p.m.