With roughly four minutes remaining in the third quarter of No. 1 women’s water polo’s matchup with No. 3 UCLA on Saturday afternoon, the Trojans were down big: 11-5. The self-proclaimed third-quarter team looked to mount a comeback against its crosstown rival, and a steal from sophomore attacker Ava Stryker was a good start.

Stryker took the ball down the pool at Spieker Aquatics Center and earned a penalty, with freshman center Alma Yaacobi being selected to take the crucial shot. Yaacobi launched an effort that was tipped by Bruin sophomore goalie Lauren Steele but continued floating toward the goal. But the ball stopped just inches from the back of the net, and Steele picked it up to end another USC (26-2, 5-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) possession scoreless.

The close call was one of many for the Trojans throughout their almost two-quarter scoring drought that spanned the middle of Saturday’s game. In that same period, the Bruins (18-4, 5-1) scored 10 goals — 7 of which came during a disastrous second quarter for USC. Some late-game fight brought the Trojans within four, but the visitors eventually fell 13-9.

“Big picture, we live to play another day,” said Head Coach Casey Moon in a postgame interview with the Daily Trojan. “We’ve got to put our heads down and keep moving forward, that’s what it comes down to. Obviously, we played a really good team in UCLA. Kudos to them for a big win.”

The loss closed out USC’s stellar regular season on a low note as it prepares for the MPSF Tournament that will run from Friday to Sunday. Outside of series splits against No. 2 Stanford (19-1, 5-1) — which the Trojans lost to 10-6 on Feb. 23 but defeated 12-11 after a thrilling comeback on March 29 — and UCLA, which USC handled 14-11 on Feb. 2 but fell to Saturday, the season has been perfect.

Moon attributed some of the Trojans’ defensive struggles to the loss of sophomore center Rachel Gazzaniga in the middle of the second quarter after she racked up a third exclusion. Exclusions were a problem for the Trojans, especially in the first half as they surrendered seven to the Bruins’ two.

“Offense starts from our defense, and today was just a little bit poor,” Moon said. “It’s tough that we could not play with [Gazzaniga], the best defender in the country, and now we’ve got to try to pick up the pieces of the puzzle to see how we want to fill her shoes. We kind of rotate as best we can, but obviously it didn’t work in our favor.”

While the Bruins struck first in the opening period on a power play, USC still controlled the first quarter, as the Trojans led 4-2 behind two scores from Stryker after the opening period. Yaacobi, filling in for Gazzaniga, added two scores late in the game, contributing to a balanced Trojan attack.

Freshman attacker Emily Ausmus, USC’s leading scorer, and redshirt senior center Tilly Kearns, USC’s second leading scorer, contributed two and one goals respectively.

“We have a really resilient group. We have a really selfless group, we’re always going to make an extra pass,” Moon said. “The highlight is going to be on [Kearns] and [Ausmus]. I think we have enough firepower around to support them and put some goals up.”

But, after Ausmus’ first goal hit the back of the net with just over four minutes left in the first quarter, the Trojan offense stalled and the Bruins began their reign over the game.

Just three possessions into the second quarter, the score was already tied at four, and UCLA wasn’t anywhere near finished. After five more Bruin goals in the period, including one during a 6-on-5 play and another from a penalty shot, the Trojans were nearly out of it.

A stellar performance from UCLA’s Steele, who came up with four of her 13 saves in the second quarter, kept the Trojans off the scoreboard for more than 15 minutes of play. Steele saved 10 shots in a row in between goals from Ausmus, who broke the USC scoring drought midway through the third quarter to conclude a 10-0 Bruin run.

“[After losing Gazzaniga], our internal clock speeds up, and now we want to hit home runs and try to score and get us back in the game,” Moon said. “With that our shots are rushed, we’re not really thorough in reading [the defense], so that’s where we were.”

On the other side of the pool, Moon switched from junior goalie Jada Ward to redshirt freshman goalie Anna Reed to start the second half. Once she came in, Reed contributed three saves on seven attempts to keep the Trojans in it.

“​​In the very beginning we didn’t play enough defense for [Ward],” Moon said. “I felt that as a group we needed a different look and, obviously, put [Reed after] the second quarter, and she did well.”

A goal from senior utility Emma Lawson as the third quarter waned closed the gap to 11-6, but USC still needed a perfect final period to take the win. Despite contributions from Yaacobi and Kearns, the Bruins struck right back and held their lead through the end of the game, staining USC’s perfect MPSF run to that point.

“We have no give up, no let down. We put our heads down and go,” Moon said. “I really commend my team for not hanging their heads regardless of what the scoreboard said and for us to fight, I’m proud of that.”

Next up for the Trojans is their MPSF Tournament first-round bout with No. 12 Indiana (17-10, 0-6), which they hammered 21-12 on March 8. If USC wins three consecutive games in the tournament — which will likely include rematches with other top teams like Stanford, UCLA and No. 5 UC Berkeley (17-4, 3-3) — the Trojans will take home the league crown.

“This is one game. Our team is going to rebound; we’ve done it before,” Moon said. “We’re going to really look at this game and find some things we did really well and find some things that we did not do well and we’re going to improve on that and be ready to play next weekend.”

First draw for the Trojans against Indiana will take place at 11 a.m. Friday at Spieker.