After a stellar second-half run for No. 1 USC women’s water polo led to a 16-10 victory over No. 9 Long Beach State Saturday, the Trojans are preparing for a clash of the water polo titans at the annual Barbara Kalbus Invitational in Irvine this weekend. Nine of the top 10 ranked squads in the country will be among the 16 teams at the tournament, alongside five other teams ranked in the top 25.

“It’s a really good measuring stick for us. This will be almost the middle of our season [so we can] see where we stand,” said Head Coach Casey Moon in an interview with the Daily Trojan on Tuesday. “[The Kalbus Invitational is] exciting for us, a new opportunity, a new challenge. Hopefully we win out, but we’re gonna take one game at a time.”

As the top seed, USC (11-0) will begin the tournament with a match against one of the only two unranked teams, Biola (1-6). Neither of the Trojans’ previous meetings with the Eagles this season have been close bouts as they breezed to wins by 15 or more Feb. 7 and Jan. 18.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

“Our team chemistry, our cohesion, is the catalyst for us winning games,” Moon said. “Yes, we’ve had a goal scoring explosion, for sure, but my players truly love each other, and they truly enjoy each other and want the best for each other. So, I think that’s what’s gonna help us win on Friday and then go on to Saturday, Sunday.”

Junior attacker Maggie Johnson said while it is difficult for the Trojans to take on so many opponents in a short period of time, tournaments such as the Kalbus Invitational bring attention to women’s collegiate water polo due to the consecutive, high-powered matchups. 

“It’s just exciting to have all these big teams together,” Johnson said. “[It’s] an opportunity for us to play a lot of games in a short amount of time, so I’m just super excited for this group.”

While each team will play four games by Sunday, there is no margin for error: Winning out is the only way to earn the Kalbus crown. Last season, the Trojans entered the tournament as the fifth seed and eked out a close win over Indiana 12-10, before losing to Stanford 12-7 in the second round. While the Trojans won out from there, they only secured fifth place in the tournament.

Moon said it’s difficult to individually prepare for opponents due to the strength of schedule and because matchups are not predetermined. While the team usually has the entire week to create a specified game plan for each matchup, the Trojans will have just hours to do so this weekend.

“Each of the teams have similarities and obviously, some differences,” Moon said. “We hope a simple game plan that we have going into Biola can carry over for those three days.”

At halftime of Saturday’s matchup with Long Beach, the score was tied 6-6 before back-to-back 5-2 quarters gave USC a convincing win. To win this weekend, the Trojans will need to similarly raise their level in the late stages of tight contests.

“There are parts of the game that didn’t go as smoothly as we wanted them to, but we stuck together,” Johnson said. “It was a little bit of adversity, that adversity that we had to face and I think we handled it together as a team, and I think we’re just super excited for this weekend.”

With a win against Biola, the Trojans would move on to face the winner of the game between Long Beach (5-6) and No. 10 Arizona State (13-3). If they take down a ranked opponent in round two, the road for the Trojans won’t get any easier — they would likely need to beat two of No. 1 Stanford (7-0), No. 3 UCLA (8-1), No. 4 UC Berkeley (8-0) or No. 5 Hawai’i (7-2) to take home the title.

USC has already taken down UCLA 14-11 and Hawai’i 17-9 — two of the signature wins in the Trojans’ undefeated start to the season.

“Everyone says we’re No. 1 in the country, and I remind them, ‘That looks good on a piece of paper,’” Moon said. “Our job is not done yet, and our target on our back is tenfold now so everyone’s going to bring their A+ game and we’ve got to bring our A++ game.”

The Trojans will take on Biola at 10 a.m. Friday at Anteater Aquatic Complex in Irvine, hoping to advance to take on some of the top teams in the nation this weekend.