After cruising past No. 10 UC Davis last weekend in its final home game of the season, No. 2 USC men’s water polo is now looking towards a massive four-game road trip to finish the season. This weekend, the Trojans will travel up north to the Bay Area to take on No. 3 Stanford and No. 7 UC Berkeley.

USC (16-3, 1-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)’s dominant 18-10 win against UC Davis (9-11, 3-0 Big West) marked its third victory over the Aggies in as many matchups this season.

Sophomore driver Robert López Duart and fifth-year driver Carson Kranz led the Trojans in scoring, with three goals each. The battle was a close, one-goal game in the third quarter until the Trojans went on a 9-2 run to seal their victory.

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USC now turns its attention to Stanford (15-2, 2-1 MPSF) and Cal (11-8, 1-2) this weekend for arguably its most difficult road weekend slate of the season. Three of the next four opponents for Head Coach Marko Pintaric and the Trojans are ranked within the top 10 nationally and are top-tier MPSF divisional rivals.

Stanford is coming off a huge win against Air Force, where the Cardinals put up a whopping 23 goals. Redshirt senior driver Jackson Painter paced Stanford in scoring with four goals, as 14 different players scored at least one goal in the dominant win.

On the other side of the Bay Bridge, Cal is well rested, fresh off a weeklong break from action. In the Bears’ last game, freshman attacker Alex Oprea racked up a hat trick, but Cal suffered a tight 11-9 loss to No. 6 Princeton.

“They’re top 10 opponents — very tough, well balanced, well conditioned and [will] be playing in their own pools,” Pintaric said in an interview with the Daily Trojan.

Rather than focusing on defending Stanford’s leading scorer — redshirt senior driver Riley Pittman — or Cal’s leading scorer — senior attacker Max Casabella — Pintaric knows his squad needs to defend the whole pool. Stanford has 11 players with at least 10 goals this season, and Cal has 12 guys in double figures.

“The whole roster is rich with players,” Pintaric said of the Trojans’ opponents this weekend. “They have candidates to become All-Americans and players on the Pete Cutino list, so we have been focusing on more than just one or two players.”

After studying hours of game film from their close loss to Stanford earlier in the season, Pintaric and the Trojans synched up on the adjustments they need to make on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

Both Pintaric and sophomore utility Stefan Brankovic emphasized the importance of improving decision-making in transition and playing four consistent quarters of water polo. Pintaric noted that the team generally tends to fall apart in one quarter and that so far this season, they have not played a full four quarters which he is satisfied with as a coach.

The last time the Trojans played Stanford, they could only muster six goals in a low-scoring affair.

“[On] defense, we fixed a few minor things that we needed to fix, but major things that we changed were the offense and the way we’re going to attack them,” Brankovic said after practice on Monday.

Despite beating Cal 16-13 in a tough matchup at home earlier this season, Brankovic understands the importance of this MPSF game and has high praise for the Bears.

“Cal is a good team. It doesn’t matter that they’re seventh. We should not underestimate them. It’s going to be a very tough game,” Brankovic said.

The MPSF division title is still up for grabs as both USC and its three opponents can all pull ahead with a win over the weekend.

Taking a trip to the Bay Area, the Trojans will face Stanford at 1 p.m. Saturday at Avery Aquatic Center and Cal at 1 p.m. Sunday at Spieker Aquatics Complex.