After wrapping up the regular season last Saturday, USC will travel 14.8 miles west to the Spieker Aquatics Center at UCLA this weekend for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament. The No. 4 Trojans will begin the tournament taking on Division III team Austin College on Friday afternoon.

This is USC’s (18-5, 2-4 MPSF) second trip to UCLA’s (21-1, 5-1) pool in as many weekends. The Trojans are hoping to come away with a better result than last Saturday’s 16-9 loss to the No. 1 Bruins.

“The last three games, we have [gone through] a period of really playing consistent and then a period of inconsistency in defense,” said Head Coach Marko Pintaric in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “And this is what cost us in the game against UCLA. The second quarter we lost 6-2.”

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For Pintaric and the coaching staff, consistency is key. USC has shown flashes of great play, but in his mind, has not put together a complete, four-quarter performance yet this season.

“The scary thing about this team, in my opinion as coach, [is] I think they’re not even playing close to the potential we can,” Pintaric said. “I hope this weekend we will be able to click mentally, individually and as a team in order to really produce at 100%.”

The Trojans now turn their attention to the Austin College Kangaroos (10-7, 6-2), who come into the tournament having won seven of their last nine games. The MPSF tournament is designed so that each of the Division I schools faces off against a Division III school on Friday in the first round. Because of this, Friday’s game will essentially serve as a tuneup game for USC to prepare for the difficult weekend ahead.

In last year’s MPSF tournament, the Division I schools, USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley (11-11, 1-5) and Stanford (19-3, 4-2), swept all four games by a combined score of 98-18. Assuming no shocking upsets occur, the Trojans will take on the No. 2 Cardinal in the second round on Saturday.

“We treat every team the same,” said redshirt freshman goalie Charles Mills in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “There are some big games after, but this happens in a lot of the big tournaments so nothing will change and we’ll take it one game at a time.”

The Trojans are the two-time defending MPSF tournament champions, having gone on a remarkable run to win the title last year. They came into the tournament in last place, with a conference record of 1-5, meaning they had a minuscule chance of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and needed to win the MPSF title to have a shot at the National Championship. They did just that, rattling off three straight wins to take home the tournament title and keep their season alive.

The situation this season isn’t nearly as dire. The Trojans come into the weekend sitting in third place in the MPSF, meaning they are likely to receive one of the two at-large bids to the eight-team NCAA tournament. They are by no means locked in though — if Cal were to win the MPSF tournament, that would knock USC down to fourth and out of the chance for a national championship. The only way to guarantee a spot is by winning the MPSF tournament, which is exactly what the Trojans will try to do this weekend.

“Extremely hyped. Extremely hyped,” Mills said, in regard to the team’s mentality for the tournament. “We’ve been in a similar situation last year when we’ve come in with losses against UCLA and Stanford. It turned out great for us and we plan to do the same.”

The Trojans have been spearheaded all season long by sophomore driver Robert López Duart and fifth-year 2-meter Max Miller who lead the team with 45 and 41 goals, respectively. They have also impressed on the defensive end of the pool, with redshirt sophomore goalie Bernardo Herzer racking up 158 saves on the season and allowing just 10 goals per game.

López Duart and Miller were named to the All-MPSF West First Team on Wednesday, while Herzer and junior utility Andrej Grgurevic took home All-MPSF West Second Team honors.

USC kicks off postseason play against Austin College at noon Friday at the Spieker Aquatics Center.