Just over halfway through the first quarter of No. 2 women’s water polo’s third-place game matchup with No. 4 UC Berkeley on Sunday at Spieker Aquatics Center, the Trojans were feeling a bit of deja vu.

A five-goal run for the Golden Bears (19-5, 3-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) put them up 5-1 — the same score No. 2 Stanford (22-1, 5-1), the eventual winners of the MPSF tournament, had built in the opening period of their Saturday matchup with USC in the semifinals. 

After falling behind early Saturday, the Trojans (27-4, 5-1) couldn’t fully recover and ultimately lost 11-7, marking the fourth consecutive year USC has lost to the Cardinal in the tournament. 

But, when Head Coach Casey Moon’s squad was down again in the tournament — this time to a Golden Bear team they handled 13-9 on March 22 — they knew they weren’t out of it and were determined not to let history repeat itself.

“The identity of who we are [is] being resilient,” Moon said in an interview with the Daily Trojan after Sunday’s game. “We have a bunch of fighters, and we have a bunch of players that hate to lose. That will, that desire, I think it really carries and really helps us.”

After a back-and-forth second quarter and a dominant second half that saw UC Berkeley only score once, USC was down just one goal — 13-12 with almost four minutes remaining. As the game waned, multiple Trojans had chances to send the game to overtime.

Freshman attacker Emily Ausmus — who broke USC’s individual-season scoring record Saturday with her 105th goal and had already netted four on the day, including the Trojans’ most recent point — narrowly missed one of her signature mid-range bullets. After redshirt senior center Tilly Kearns earned an exclusion, sophomore center Rachel Gazzaniga was blocked by a Golden Bear defender just in front of the goal.

With 40 seconds to go, the Trojans were down to one final try after a leaping save from redshirt freshman goalie Anna Reed kept them in it, and this one, a shot from freshman center Alma Yaacobi, was wide left.

The loss to UC Berkeley and the fourth-place finish in the tournament culminated a tough nine days for the Trojans that included three losses in four games — the other coming against No. 1 UCLA (19-5, 5-1) on April 19. Before its troubles at Spieker, USC had only lost once this season — a 10-6 defeat in a non-league matchup with Stanford on Feb. 23.

“We went through some adversity [Saturday], I think we did pretty well in rebounding, as well as trying to manage this adversity today. Obviously, the end result wasn’t in our favor, but I believe we will have another opportunity to play,” Moon said. “We’re gonna learn from [Saturday and Sunday] and utilize it to grow.”

Throughout the tournament, it was the two-headed dragon of Ausmus and Kearns that led the Trojan offense. In the process of breaking the scoring record, Ausmus contributed at least four goals in all three tournament outings while Kearns added four each against the Golden Bears and in USC’s 20-5 opening- round victory over No. 12 Indiana (17-12, 0-8) on Friday.

Both came up especially clutch down the stretch against UC Berkeley, combining for USC’s final five goals that brought the Trojans back into the game late.

“I’m so grateful to have two of the best players in the country, they’re game changing,” Moon said. “They are such big-time competitors in that they hate to lose, and if you have two people with that mentality, that makeup really fuels the [team].”

Moon mixed it up in goal throughout the tournament. Against Indiana, junior goalie Jada Ward — who has played a majority of the minutes this season for the Trojans — and Reed split halves. Against Stanford, Reed got the nod for the entire game. In an interview after Saturday’s matchup with the Cardinal, Moon said he felt Reed would help with the Trojans’ fluidity.

Sunday, Ward got the start in goal but was replaced by Reed after giving up seven goals in the first quarter and failing to save any of the Golden Bears’ shots.

“Both of them have strengths in their own right and at that moment, when we gave up seven, it was just a gut decision for me,” Moon said about the switch in goal. “I needed to try to change the momentum of the game and to do something different so … I followed my gut, and we almost pulled it off.”

While USC wouldn’t come within two until late in the game against UC Berkeley, an explosive second quarter set the stage for an entirely different second half. There were nine goals total in the period — four for USC — including five in a two-minute stretch nearing halftime. However, beginning with 1:45 left in the second quarter, the Trojans tightened their defense, holding the Golden Bears scoreless for almost 12 minutes and spearheading the near comeback.

Against Stanford on Saturday, the Trojan offense was hit by a wall early: Cardinal sophomore goalie Christine Carpenter, who saved five of the first six USC shots, put them in the identical 5-1 hole. Carpenter ended the game with nine saves and a 60% save percentage, while USC’s Reed had seven saves and just a 38.9% save percentage.

“That’s a really good goalie we’re shooting on. I think she’s really good on stationary shooting and some of the shots we took, we made it easy for her,” Moon said after Saturday’s matchup with Stanford. “At this level … it’s all about momentum. If they block the first 1, 2, 3, 4, they feel … ‘Hey, this cage is small,’ and they can block anything.” 

However, unlike in their matchup with UC Berkeley, USC fought back immediately thanks to contributions from junior attacker Morgan Netherton, sophomore attacker Ava Stryker and Ausmus. Only down by two at halftime, the Trojans were in it until their offense stalled to open the third, and another Cardinal run gave up the momentum. 

In the previous matchup between the water polo titans, USC scored eight fourth-quarter goals to upset the then-No. 1 Cardinal, but this time the Trojans didn’t have it in the tank.

“We’ve got to be able to match that intensity and I know we can, we’ve shown it throughout the season,” Moon said. “If we could believe in what we do, have confidence in what we do, I think we’re a really tough team to beat.”

While the matchup with Stanford has been an emotional one in recent years due to the Cardinal knocking the Trojans out of three consecutive NCAA tournaments and three of the last four MPSF tournaments — with USC losing to Stanford in the third-place game in the other year — Moon said the team treats every game the same.

“Stanford, obviously, they have a talented group and they have a motor, they have an engine, and their counter attack is exceptional,” Moon said. “The teams that we play are really good and I think if we really think about the history of wins and losses about each team, I think it just kind of takes away from the moment.”

There was no doubt during USC’s tournament-opening bout with Indiana that they would come out on top, that included a 5-0 start for the Trojans — a near inverse of the ensuing two matchups. On top of the usual suspects in Ausmus and Kearns, sophomore attacker Meghan McAninch and Gazzaniga also contributed to the 20-5 rout with three and two goals respectively.

However, the Trojans struggled after that, and back-to-back losses likely led to USC’s slight drop to the No. 3 seed at the NCAA tournament, behind Stanford and UCLA. 

In their first matchup of the tournament, the Trojans will face off against No. 15 Harvard (26-6, 10-2 Collegiate Water Polo Association), which earned a guaranteed bid after an overtime victory in the CWPA championship game. USC already took down the Crimson this season, 17-10, on March 15. 

With a win, the Trojans will likely see UCLA and then Stanford if they hope to take home the NCAA crown. But first, USC will take to the pool against Harvard on May 9 at 3 p.m. in Indianapolis.