USC men’s water polo has been in this position before: A stellar regular season ending with a devastating loss to crosstown rival UCLA, seemingly killing the Trojans’ momentum heading into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.

Saturday afternoon, No. 1 USC (18-3, 4-2 MPSF) suffered that exact fate for the fourth straight year, falling to the No. 2 Bruins (22-1, 5-1) in a 14-13 nail-biter at Uytengsu Aquatics Center. 

However, that pattern of disappointment doesn’t tell the full story: In each of those past three seasons, the Trojans lost to UCLA in their final game — and then won the MPSF Tournament.

So, while Saturday’s defeat allowed the Bruins to nab the No. 1 seed in the tournament, USC has proven its ability to overcome heartbreak time and time again. With the first round of the 2025 MPSF Tournament quickly approaching, set to kick off Friday, the Trojans hope history will repeat itself once more as they pursue their fourth consecutive conference championship.

Fresh faces await USC in first matchup

The race for the MPSF title will likely come down to the tournament’s top four seeds, all of whom happen to be the four highest-ranked teams in the country: USC, UCLA, No. 3 Stanford (15-6, 2-4) and No. 4 UC Berkeley (14-6, 1-5).

Before they have the chance to take on a familiar conference foe, however, the Trojans will need to get through a new opponent — the winner of a first-round game between Austin College (7-8, 5-3) and Wheaton College (1-17, 1-7), neither of whom USC has faced this season.

Austin College is coming off a 26-6 blowout win over Wheaton, in which the Kangaroos saw 11 different players score, four with hat tricks. Junior attacker Greyson Gaworecki led the charge with five goals, followed closely behind by freshman attacker Owen Altermatt and freshman center defender Hudson Seavers-Reale at four apiece. 

Altermatt also tacked on a team-high five steals as the team recorded 18 in total, a mark the Trojans themselves have reached just once all season in a 25-7 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (20-5, 11-1 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) on Sept. 19.

While USC is unlikely to face Wheaton on Friday — this would require the Lyons to defeat the team they just lost to by 20 goals — the Trojans need to be prepared for anything, and Wheaton has an offensive weapon of its own that could make a potential matchup closer than expected.

Sophomore utility Spyros Rapsomanikis has been a bright spot in an otherwise dismal season for the Lyons, leading the team by a wide margin with 40 goals and 19 assists. Rapsomanikis is hot off a five-goal performance in Wheaton’s regular-season finale against Connecticut College (4-13, 3-5) and could do serious damage against an unsuspecting Trojan defense.

On the goalkeeping end, however, both of the Lyons’ primary goalies have averaged 20 or more goals allowed per game — more than double either of USC’s main options in front of the net — making a date with Wheaton a prime opportunity for the Trojans to let off some steam after Saturday’s loss.

Familiar foes prepare down the line

Assuming USC gets past the first game, it will likely face Stanford in the tournament semifinals — a rematch of last year’s semifinal, when the Trojans took home an 18-16 win in overtime. USC has plenty of experience against the Cardinal under its belt, having won all three of the teams’ matchups this season, the most recent of which was a 14-9 victory Nov. 2.

The Trojans have been highly effective at suppressing Stanford’s offense, with the nine-goal performance representing the Cardinal’s fewest scored in a game all year. However, Stanford is fresh off a 13-9 win over Cal — a team that beat USC twice this season — and has plenty of motivation to get revenge after taking three separate losses to the Trojans.

If the Trojans can take down Stanford for the fourth time this year, they’ll secure a spot in the championship game, where they will likely face either UCLA or Cal — two teams they have had mixed results against in the regular season.

The Bruins have certainly earned the top seed in the tournament, outscoring their opponents 404-200 with a dynamic offense and defense alike. Sophomore attacker Ryder Dodd has racked up 82 goals, including four in each of UCLA’s matchups with USC, en route to what will likely be his second-straight MPSF Player of the Year Award.

Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Nate Tauscher has been unstoppable for the most part, notching an MPSF-high 185 saves, though the Trojans’ 13 goals scored in each of their bouts are tied for the most Tauscher has allowed in a game in his career.

Despite UCLA’s top-seed status, USC may actually prefer the Bruins to a rematch with Cal, which accounted for two of the Trojans’ three regular-season losses. The Golden Bears were unable to figure out the Bruins this season, being outscored 43-28 across three matchups, so a UCLA-Cal semifinal may bode well for USC if it wants to avoid its former tormentors.

If the Golden Bears make it to the final, however, the Trojans will need to find an antidote for freshman goalkeeper Aran Pina, who recorded 12 saves in Cal’s first win over USC on Sept. 21 and a career-high 15 in the follow-up Oct. 5. USC also can’t afford a strong performance from freshman attacker Beso Akhvlediani, who scored four goals in the teams’ Sept. 21 contest and leads the Golden Bears with 51 on the season.

A gauntlet awaits the Trojans along their path to a conference championship, but if history is any indication, they’re prepared to take on the challenge. USC will play its first game of the MPSF Tournament against either Austin College or Wheaton on Friday at 4 p.m., looking to improve its resume for the NCAA Tournament to follow.