On a roster as deep as USC men’s water polo, a sea of talented youth and seasoned veterans, it can be hard to make a name for yourself. After Saturday’s game against No. 8 UC Irvine, however, fans will be remembering senior driver Mihailo Vukazić’s name for a long time.

No. 2 USC (7-0) tamed Irvine (6-1) on Saturday, ending the Anteaters’ undefeated run to start the season. No player stood out more than Vukazić, who bagged eight goals — a career-best performance and the second-most ever by a Trojan in a single game — to propel a 13-8 win over the Anteaters. 

Vukazić’s previous career best of seven goals also came against Irvine, while he was playing with the University of the Pacific last season.

‘Probably the best I’ve seen in a while’

Vukazić set the tone early by scoring the first three goals of the game before the Anteaters managed one of their own. He also showed his defensive strength with a field block before adding his fourth goal, though Irvine pulled one back to make it 4-2 at the end of the first period. 

Vukazić struck twice more in the second quarter, including a goal with just 5 seconds on the clock to give USC a 7-4 lead at halftime. Freshman driver Gavin Conant also contributed with a power-play finish, giving him his seventh goal in as many games this season.  

In the second half, Vukazić cooled down a bit, though for him that still meant picking up two more goals. Four other Trojans scored to give Vukazić some support, including junior driver Robert López Duart’s team-high 20th goal of the season.

“[Vukazić’s] performance was great, unbelievable, probably the best I’ve seen in a while,” Head Coach Marko Pintaric said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “He had multiple steals and still scored eight goals and multiple assists. It’s amazing … he really had a stellar performance.”

Herzer remains dominant on defense

Another standout was redshirt junior goalie Bernardo Herzer, the anchor of USC’s defense, who tallied 11 saves to bring his career total to 428 — ranking No. 11 all-time among Trojan goalies. Herzer got the start over redshirt sophomore goalie Charlie Mills, who has split time in front of the net fairly evenly with Herzer this season.

“We are very, very fortunate to have Bernardo and Charlie Mills,” Pintaric said. “These two extremely good goalies, they pretty much compete [for] who’s going to play, and then once we select them, obviously they are doing a stellar job.” 

The win marked the Trojans’ 39th consecutive victory over Irvine and improved their all-time record to 87-23. Despite the dominant performance, Pintaric said he still insists on demanding a high level of play to maintain the team’s consistency.

“We can work on our transition, definitely counterattack to speed up the game a little bit,” Pintaric said. “When you have two quality goalies, as we do, we can always — and should — play defense better.”

Up next, the Trojans are back home at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Friday at noon to face off against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (4-1) for the first game of the 2025 Overnght MPSF Invitational.