USC men’s water polo will face its crosstown rival Saturday in a game that will likely decide the country’s top team heading into postseason play.

The No. 1 Trojans (18-2, 4-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will finish their regular season against No. 2 UCLA (21-1, 4-1) at Uytengsu Aquatics Center in a rematch of the rivals’ nailbiting Oct. 18 matchup.

In that game, USC handed the Bruins their first — and only — loss of the season in a 13-12 upset. With the win, USC replaced UCLA as the nation’s top team, so the Bruins will be eager for revenge in hostile territory this weekend.

While it is likely both squads will qualify for the upcoming NCAA tournament — one as MPSF conference champion and the other as an at-large bid — Saturday’s game could be crucial for seeding and momentum ahead of the MPSF Tournament that begins Nov. 21.

The Trojans are coming off a commanding 22-13 win over No. 10 UC Santa Barbara (17-13, 3-2 Big West), and the Bruins are fresh off a 17-2 dismantling of No. 6 University of the Pacific (15-7, 5-1 West Coast Conference).

Trojans must contain Dodd

UCLA sophomore attacker Ryder Dodd, who won last year’s Cutino Award for the best player in men’s water polo, has been nearly unstoppable this season. The Bruin star has recorded a MPSF-leading 78 goals this season — 26 more than USC’s top goal scorer, junior driver Robert López Duart, who has 52.

In the Trojans’ Oct. 18 game against UCLA, Dodd excelled with four goals and one assist, and he added five more against the Tigers on Nov. 7.

While no squad has been able to completely neutralize Dodd — he’s scored at least two goals in all but two games this season — USC will need to contain his explosive play to emerge victorious this weekend. That formidable task will rely on the play of USC’s two goalkeepers, redshirt sophomore Charles Mills and redshirt junior Bernardo Herzer.

USC’s goalkeeping duo has split time fairly evenly in recent games. In the squad’s first matchup at UCLA, Herzer and Mills gave up six goals and saved three shots in 16 minutes apiece.

Herzer and Mills rank fourth and fifth in the MPSF in save percentage, respectively. Herzer’s 51% narrowly tops Mills’s 49%, but both goalies will need to be at the top of their game if they hope to stop Dodd from dominating the pool.

During last month’s upset victory, the Trojan defense gave up only 12 goals — the second fewest scored by UCLA all season. USC’s squad will need a similar defensive effort if it hopes to win this weekend.

Balanced offense led USC to win in first match

In their first match against UCLA, the Trojans relied on a balanced attack led by leading scorers López Duart and senior driver Mihailo Vukazić. USC scored 13 goals — the most that the stout Bruin defense has given up to any opponent all year — from nine different scorers.

Preparing to face one of the best defenses in the nation, which just held the sixth-ranked team in the nation to two goals for the entire game on Nov. 7, the Trojans will likely need to rely on a balanced offense again.

UCLA redshirt sophomore goalie Nate Tauscher, who has started all 22 games for the Bruins, holds the third-best save percentage in the MPSF at nearly 57%, and saved 13-of-26 shots in his last meeting with the Trojans.

Though López Duart and Vukazić lead USC, the Trojan depth has still shone throughout the season with seven players recording at least forty points — a statistic that combines goals scored and assists.

The Trojan offense could turn to junior utility Stefan Branković and senior utility Andrej Grgurevic, who lead the unit in assists, to help ignite the attack Saturday. Branković has recorded 39 assists on the season, and Grgurevic has added 25 of his own.

The Trojans will finish their regular season against UCLA at Uytengsu Aquatics Center at 11 a.m. on Saturday.