The No. 3 USC Trojans welcome No. 20 California Baptist University to the Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Friday night. The Trojans are coming off of a successful weekend at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Invitational tournament in Berkeley.

USC (10-1) won its first three games of the tournament, including a comeback overtime victory against No. 2 Stanford (9-1). The Trojans fell in the final of the tournament to No. 1 UCLA (10-0), but the team was still pleased with their performance.

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“I’m very satisfied with our tournament last weekend,” said sophomore utility Stefan Brankovic in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “There were a lot of opportunities to grow as a team which we did, especially in those tough moments where we were losing, coming back and winning games.”

Head Coach Marko Pintaric took a more reserved approach when analyzing last weekend’s tournament.

“There are pros and cons,” Pintaric said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “Overall, the most important thing for me to see is the progress in the team, going from when we started the season in San Diego to this tournament … We are a program that really loves to win every game, and we go into every game every season to win it all. Overall, the end result in my book is not good, but more pros than cons definitely at this point.”

The Trojans now turn their attention to Cal Baptist (6-6). Cal Baptist had a tough start to the season, dropping its first two games on an East Coast road trip, but has won three of its last five. The Lancers are led offensively by senior Bodhi Bowden, who has a team-high 25 goals through their first 10 games.

“Traditionally, it’s a well-coached team, always a well-conditioned team and somebody that you don’t want to overlook,” Pintaric said.

USC has two massive games the following weekend, hosting Stanford and No. 6 UC Berkeley (7-3) in conference play. The Trojans are hoping to use the Cal Baptist game as preparation for those showdowns.

“We’re going to have a little bit tougher of a week because the week after Cal Baptist, Stanford and Cal are coming to our pool,” Brankovic said. “So we’re going to condition a little bit more and prepare for that game as we’re going to prepare ourselves for Cal and Stanford. We’re going to take it seriously, like they are one of the hardest opponents you can play against.”

After a weekend in Berkeley, USC is eager to be back in front of its home crowd. The allure of Family Weekend combined with the fact that it is the only Friday night home game of the year has the Trojans hoping for a raucous environment.

“I’m very excited for that. I would use this to call all the people that can come on Friday to watch our game because the feeling when you’re at the pool and watching live games can’t compare to when you’re watching on the internet,” Brankovic said. “So everybody, if they can come, they should watch because the atmosphere is amazing.”

USC will look to show out in front of their fans. The Trojans will take on Cal Baptist at 5 p.m. at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Friday.