After a dominant weekend in La Jolla at the Triton Invitational, No. 2 USC men’s water polo (4-0) is back home and preparing for another weekend of games. 

Kicking off the three-game weekend with their home opener against No. 6 Long Beach State University (5-1) before an exhibition match against Golden West College (0-0), the Trojans are excited to return to Uytengsu Aquatics Center after a long offseason away. 

“I really love playing at USC. I still believe we have one of the nicest facilities in the United States,” seventh-year Head Coach Marko Pintaric said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “[With the] game being on a Friday night, we love to use this chance to invite everybody on campus to really come and support the team.”

For junior driver Robert López Duart, the atmosphere from the fans is what he is most looking forward to for the home opener Friday night.

“It’s always amazing to be back home, play in our pool and have our fans here,” López Duart said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “It’s going to be exciting.”

The impressive offensive display from López Duart, who led USC with 12 goals in La Jolla, and freshman 2-meter Strahinja Krstic, who tallied seven goals over the weekend, helped the Trojans outscore their opponents 69-39 across all four games. 

This offensive flurry led to López Duart and Krstic earning Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week and Newcomer of the Week awards, respectively.

Rounding out the Trojans’ offense, junior utility Stefan Brankovic provides an outside threat to balance Krstic’s work in center. Over the weekend, Brankovic notched eight goals, including two hat tricks. 

“We need to improve a lot of things. We got a lot of goals scored on us, and that’s a big problem,” López Duarte said. “It’s true that we score a lot, but we need to get rid of most of the goals that we get [scored on].” 

Redshirt junior goalie Bernardo Herzer and redshirt sophomore goalie Charles Mills will lead this defensive focus. The two keepers proved to be a dynamic duo in the cage over the weekend, with both tallying 20 saves in just over three games played. During that span, Herzer averaged 11.4 saves per game with Mills averaging 8.9.

“[The biggest focus is] just to keep up the momentum,” Mills said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “The first games we have, they can always be shaky because you never know what to expect.”

After the doubleheader at Uytengsu, USC will take a trip to Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool to face No. 7 Pepperdine University (3-1) on Sunday at 1 p.m.

First draw against Long Beach is at 5 p.m. Friday at Uytengsu Aquatics Center, followed by a 6:30 p.m. contest against Golden West.

Ana Arriaga and Bennett Christofferson contributed to this report.