This USC men’s water polo team is different.

At least, that’s what everyone on and around the team is saying about the camaraderie between all of the players.

“This is the closest team I’ve ever been a part of personally, and everyone’s kind of best friends with each other,” said junior utility Andrej Grgurevic in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “It helps a lot in the locker room and in the pool, we keep each other accountable. It separates the friendship and teammate role, but it’s a really good locker room.”

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The Trojan togetherness will be on display this weekend as No. 3 USC men’s water polo (4-0) is back at home after a perfect start to the season at the Triton Invitational last weekend. The team collected two wins against ranked opponents — No. 10 Long Beach State (3-1) and No. 8 UC Davis (2-2) — and won every game by six goals or more.

The usual suspects got on the board early and often for USC in its first sleight of games. Fifth-year 2-meter Max Miller tallied at least one goal in every one of the Trojans’ first four games. The same was true for Grgurevic, who tallied six goals overall across the first four games. Miller’s fellow All-MPSF First Team member, fifth-year driver Carson Kranz, notched four goals on the weekend, including a hat trick against UC Davis on Sunday.

The real standout from the weekend, though, was sophomore driver Robert López Duart. A transfer from Long Beach, López Duart had an otherworldly true freshman campaign for The Beach last season. He tallied 87 goals and 30 assists while being named the Big West Freshman of the Year. López Duart was able to transfer mid-year during the 2024 spring semester, so he’s had more time than normal to acclimate to life at USC.

The new Trojan came out firing in his introductory matches in the cardinal and gold. In his first game, coincidentally against his former team, López Duart had a game-leading two goals and kept his hot streak going throughout the weekend. By the time the four games were final, López Duart finished with nine total goals, the most on the team, and collected the inaugural Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Newcomer of the Week award for the 2024 season.

“It was so tough to play my first official game with USC, against Long Beach — my old school — but I think that I handled [it well], I didn’t put too much pressure on myself,” López Duart said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “It’s a good feeling for everyone [to get the wins], It’s amazing. As a team, we are together for the main objective, which is the national championship.”

But the Trojans have shifted focus to this weekend when more marquee matchups will take place at Uytengsu Aquatics Center. They’ll face two tough opponents in No. 9 UC Irvine (2-2) and No. 4 Pepperdine University (4-0), with Whittier College (1-0) sandwiched between the two big face-offs with top teams.

“We are getting ready for them, like we do for every opponent, but with extra caution this weekend, trying to really win our own pool,” said Head Coach Marko Pintaric in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We’re gonna try to tighten up our defense … We will focus on that to improve our press and the timing so we really become more efficient and not giving up extra opportunities.”

The Waves seem to be the strongest of the string of opponents on deck for Pintaric’s squad this weekend. Pepperdine is similarly coming off of an undefeated first weekend but touts a top-tier win on its resume. In a sudden death overtime period, the Waves scored first to take down then-No. 2 UC Berkeley (3-1) by a score of 21-20.

It won’t be an easy match by any means for the Trojans, especially on the defensive end. The Waves have averaged a whopping 22 goals across their first four games. But USC has unwavering confidence they’ll wrap up this weekend with another perfect record.

“Having such a strong start, it’s a big boost in our back for the next games coming up now,” Grgurevic said. “You can’t take any opponent lightly, you have to prepare properly, watch the film, get prepared and honestly, just play our game how we know we can play it. And I think we’ll have a comfortable two wins this weekend.”

The Trojans will jump into their home waters for the first time this season at noon Saturday against UC Irvine at Uytengsu.