The No. 5 Trojans will travel south to face No. 8 Long Beach State Friday. With three games left in the regular season, USC is looking to get back into the win column after a difficult string of games.

The Trojans (10-5, 0-4 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) began the season 10-2 and were ranked as highly as No. 2 in the country. They have lost their past three, though, dropping road games to No. 5 Stanford, No. 2 UC Berkeley and No. 1 UCLA.

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USC didn’t play this past weekend, its first week off since the season began Sep. 2. The break in games came at a welcome time for the Trojans.

“It was very important because we did touch on the physical conditioning,” said Head Coach Marko Pintaric in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We refreshed that part that was well needed, especially the way the guys kinda slowed down and showed kinda no energy in the last game they played.”

The break in games allowed USC to have an extended period of practice to iron out issues in its play.

“We had a tough game against UCLA, so it was good to get back into the right mindset and headspace and get together to have a good week of training,” said junior driver Jake Carter. “Because we didn’t have a game, we could go a little bit harder so it was good to have that week.”

The path forward after the bye week doesn’t get much easier for USC. Long Beach State (14-9, 1-2 Big West) also lost its past two games to Cal and Stanford, but poses a dangerous offensive threat, having scored more than 20 goals in six games this season.

“This is a very tough team. We scrimmaged with them all summer and we know them very well from throughout the season — very dangerous shooting team and very dangerous post-up game,” Pintaric said. “We have to be very cautious [and] know exactly what we’re doing offensively and defensively in order to be successful.” 

USC will finish the regular season with games against Stanford and UCLA, so beating Long Beach State is vital for the Trojans.

“We need to [win] for the rest of our season,” Carter said. “Our season’s pretty much over if we don’t do it. We would have to win the [MPSF] tournament, which would be difficult. We can do it, but we’d have to pretty much win out from here. This Long Beach game is crucial.”

Long Beach State is led offensively by freshman sensation attacker Robert Lopez Duart, who came to Long Beach State after winning the Spanish National Championship with his club from Barcelona.

Duart has already scored 68 goals this season, including an 8-goal game in a win over Stanford on Sep. 2, which tied the Long Beach State single-game record for goals. His 68 goals already place him ninth on the Long Beach State single-season leaderboard, and he will certainly continue to climb the list as the season goes on.

Containing Duart is a top priority for the Trojans’ defense.

“We just can’t give him too much space and [have] to notice tendancies,” Carter said. “He can’t get as many shots as he’s had in previous game. We just gotta take him down.“

USC will look for a win against Long Beach State at 7 p.m. Friday at Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.