Redshirt senior center Tilly Kearns had March 29 circled on her calendar for a long time.

The matchup between the top two teams in women’s water polo at Uytengsu Aquatics Center was even more personal for Kearns and the No. 2 Trojans (24-1, 3-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation). Going into Saturday, the Trojans had lost seven straight matchups to No. 1 Stanford (15-1, 2-1), including their only loss of the season thus far. The Cardinal had also flung USC from three consecutive NCAA and MPSF tournaments.

Nearing the end of the third quarter Saturday, the Trojans were down 7-4 and seemingly out of it. To add fuel to the fire, USC Head Coach Casey Moon earned a yellow/red card, limiting his ability to move down the pool.

Kearns, who Moon described as the “best player in the country,” wasn’t about to waste her strong performance up to that point.

With 6:46 left in the game, Kearns started a rally with her third goal of the game. Fast forward just over one minute and another of Kearns’ six total goals, coupled with a score from junior attacker Morgan Netherton, had the game tied.

Despite having also played in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Kearns said the atmosphere Saturday was “next level.”

The home crowd — led by four shirtless male fans with one character of “USC!” painted on each of their bodies who began chants of “I believe that we will win” and “We are, SC,” that overpowered the announcer — had the atmosphere set for a Clash of the Titans. Neither team wanted to disappoint.

“I get chills, and it’s just so much fun. This is why you go to college. This is why you choose USC or Stanford or even UCLA [16-3, 4-0] — one of the top schools — so you can play in an atmosphere like this,” Kearns said in a postgame interview.

After being tied at seven, each time one side would take a lead, the other would strike back on the next possession. A goal from freshman attacker Emily Ausmus — which gave USC its first lead of the game, 9-8 — and two more from Kearns pushed the Trojans forward, but it was freshman center Alma Yaacobi’s crossbody score with 22 seconds left on the clock that sent USC home victorious, 12-11.

The Cardinal took their final possession with little time left, hoping to respond quickly yet again to a Trojan score. Passing back and forth, Stanford lined up its shot, but Ausmus was there for a block as the buzzer rang, leading to an eruption of cheers in the crowd.

“Stanford is a sore spot for me, because they’ve beaten me in three national championships before, so to get one back … it’s just so nice to see that hard work is paying off,” Kearns said. “It’s always a good day to beat Stanford, and it doesn’t come often, so we’ve really got to revel in it.”

Early on, however, it was all Cardinal, not cardinal and gold.

Stanford opened the game with three consecutive goals before Kearns netted her first as the opening period waned and another early in the second quarter, keeping the Trojans in the game before their ultimate comeback.

“Tilly, she’s a selfless leader. It’s not about herself. She’s gonna put her teammates first,” Moon said. “To have a leader vocally, with [a] lead-by-example type is tremendous, and I’m so grateful that we have somebody like Tilly.”

Exclusions played a big part in scoring on both sides, including back-to-back mid-second-quarter Stanford scores coming in 6-on-5 play, putting the Trojans down by three, again, 5-2.

The Cardinal netted 5 of their 11 goals in the game during 6-on-5 due to 12 USC exclusions. Stanford also committed 10 exclusions, leading to three power-play goals for the Trojans.

In a glimpse of what was to come, USC scored twice in the final 1:03 of the half, including a red-zone goal from Ausmus off a beautiful pass from sophomore attacker Ava Stryker, who finished the game with four assists. A steal from sophomore center Rachel Gazzaniga set up sophomore attacker Meghan McAninch for a net with just 19 seconds remaining to close the gap to one.

“Whatever [the score] may be, we really don’t hang our heads, and obviously that’s a testament to the group,” Moon said. “It’s not the X’s and O’s that make us win. I think we have such a connected group with each other, and that’s why they’re helping us win.”

The Trojan momentum was stalled in the third, due to the Cardinal scoring two consecutive and strong play from Stanford sophomore goalie Christine Carpenter, who ended the game with a 40% save percentage. But the physical Trojan defense did just enough, including a leaping block from junior goalie Jada Ward with less than a minute remaining in the quarter that kept them in the game.

While USC combined for eight fourth-quarter goals — double the Trojans’ score in the first three quarters — the Cardinal got quick points on fast breaks, including three in 6-on-5 play to keep the pressure on.

“At that moment, it’s so fast and even for me it’s so hard for me to kind of call stuff out,” Moon said. “But it’s truly the belief in my players. They’re gonna go in and look at this and review it and it’s just little mistakes. When you play a really good team, these little mistakes magnify, and hopefully next time we don’t get too many of those.”

It doesn’t get much easier from here for the Trojans as they will close out the regular season with three teams on the schedule all ranked in the top 18, including crosstown rival No. 4 UCLA, whom USC beat Feb. 2 by a score of 14-11.

“[Beating Stanford] shows us what we’re really good at, and again, it gives us a lot of confidence. It does show a lot of holes as well,” Kearns said. “We’re a young team … There’s new girls, freshmen and sophomore[s], that haven’t had a game like that. So, it’s good experience for them as well.”

Next up for USC is a bout with No. 7 Arizona State (17-6, 1-3) April 12 at 1 p.m. at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.