They’ve done it again.

For a third straight year, USC entered the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament as underdogs, needing to win the tournament to guarantee their spot in the NCAA tournament. And for a third year, USC delivered, winning the conference tournament to make its 20th straight NCAA tournament appearance. 

At the Spieker Aquatics Center in Westwood, the pool of its crosstown rival, USC (21-5, 2-4 MPSF) entered the tournament as the No. 5 seed, after finishing third in MPSF regular season play. Because of their regular season performance, the Trojans were likely to earn one of the two at-large bids to the NCAA tournament, but it was by no means a guarantee. If UC Berkeley (12-13, 1-5 MPSF) won the tournament, USC would have been bumped down to fourth in their conference and, in all likelihood, out of the chance to compete for its 11th national championship. 

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“We always know we have this potential. Sometimes during the season, it doesn’t always click the best,” said fifth-year 2-meter Max Miller in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “This season especially we just haven’t had that little edge. But once it comes to this tournament, it’s do or die. It’s just we have to win … The emotion comes out, we all come together and it’s beautiful.” 

USC opened the tournament Friday afternoon against No. 4 seed Division III Austin College (12-9, 6-2 MPSF). The Trojans easily dispatched the weaker opponent, winning 31-2 to advance to the semifinals. 

The 31 goals were the most by the Trojans in a single game since 2018. Redshirt junior 2-meter Jack Martin led the way with a career-high 8 goals, one behind the all-time USC record set by Nikola Vavic in 2012. 

On Saturday, the Trojans met No. 3 seed and nationally No. 2 ranked Stanford (21-4, 4-2 MPSF). USC was 1-2 against the Cardinal this season, winning in overtime Sept. 21, but falling Oct. 6 and Nov. 2 in low-scoring affairs. 

Saturday’s game mirrored the team’s first encounter. They exchanged the lead five times throughout the game, and fifth-year driver Carson Kranz put USC ahead 13-11 with 2:27 to play in the fourth quarter. But after a controversial exclusion which led to USC Head Coach Marko Pintaric receiving a red card, Stanford equalized to send the game into overtime. 

In the extra frame, though, Kranz took control. He scored a hat-trick in overtime, setting his career high in goals in the process with five. His fifth goal of the game proved to be the winner, as it put USC up by three with 17 seconds to play. The teams traded goals in the waning seconds, but the Trojans hung on for the 18-16 victory. 

That upset win set up a sold-out Sunday Crosstown Splashdown with the No. 1 seed and nationally ranked No. 1 UCLA (23-2, 5-1 MPSF). The Bruins came into the game riding a ten-game win streak and had beaten USC in all three of their previous matchups, including a 16-9 victory last Saturday. 

Two minutes into the championship bout, Miller gave the Trojans a 2-1 lead from close range and they would not relinquish for the rest of the game. After being down multiple goals for the majority of the game, the Bruins ignited the home fans by scoring three straight to make it a one-goal game with 6:13 to go in the fourth quarter. 

But USC responded with three straight goals of its own to go ahead 15-11. That proved to be enough as the Trojans fended off a flurry of UCLA attacks and hung on for the 15-13 victory to earn the MPSF championship and a place in the NCAA tournament in one fell swoop.

USC used a physical, stingy defense, combined with a consistent offense to stifle any momentum the Bruins tried to build. That was in spite of UCLA drawing 17 exclusions, compared to just seven for USC, much to the displeasure of the traveling Trojan fanbase. 

Because of Pintaric’s red card in the previous game, he was suspended for Sunday’s match. Assistant Coach Ivan Buich took control of the team and rallied the squad around its head coach. 

“With our head coach getting a red card yesterday, I fired the team up so much that they knew that we had to get to the next level of playing for one another,” said Buich in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “That’s where the guys really, really took it. They helped me make it easier to be able to help them and guide them, so we can get there for our head coach and our program.”

The Trojans’ fate was decided early Monday morning as the NCAA announced the bracket for the national championship — an 8-team, single-elimination tournament. USC earned the two-seed and will play seven-seed California Baptist University (23-13, 3-3 West Coast Conference), the champions of the West Coast Conference. USC won the teams’ lone previous encounter this season Sept. 27, 21-12.

Because of USC’s victory this weekend, the selection show became a matter of who — not if — for the Trojans. Despite their performance this weekend, the team believes they have more potential to reach. 

“We can go even further. Yeah, this was a great game, yesterday was a great game, but there’s still things we got to fix,” Miller said. “We’ll hit the next two weeks pretty hard, and then we’ll go from there. I think we can go even more.”

USC will play Cal Baptist in the first round of the NCAA tournament Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. Games will take place at Avery Aquatic Center in Palo Alto, California.