After a blazing overall 12-2 start, No. 3 USC women’s water polo finds itself entering the most important phase of the season. The team’s performance in the second half of the season, including matchups with three top opponents, will prove crucial in positioning the Trojans well for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and NCAA tournaments in their quest for an eighth NCAA Championship. 

Through dominating performances against some of their toughest opponents, including three separate wins over No. 11 Long Beach State University (7-8), a 19-8 route of No. 16 San Jose State University (5-8, 0-2 MPSF) and a major win over No. 4 UC Berkeley (8-3, 0-1) at the Kalbus Invitational, USC (12-2, 1-0) has once again established itself as one of the top teams in women’s water polo. 

“I’m really proud of our group,” Head Coach Casey Moon said in an interview with the Daily Trojan on Tuesday. “We have a bunch of fighters on our team that really, really hate to lose, but they love playing water polo, and I really believe we play the right way. So we’re really excited for the MPSF season.”

Tournament experience

Before the MPSF and NCAA tournaments begin, USC will have already competed in three tournaments. The Trojans headed south to the annual Triton Invitational on Jan. 30, where they fell to No. 2 UCLA (10-1, 1-0 MPSF) in the first-place match. Two weeks later, they competed in the Kalbus Invitational, once again falling to UCLA — this time, in the semi-finals. USC will round out its tournament roster at the Convergence Tournament in Claremont, California, on March 6.

Junior center Rachel Gazzaniga said non-playoff tournaments help instill a one-game-at-a-time mindset in the team, which she said will aid them come March. Gazzaniga has tallied 17 goals from center and drawn 21 exclusions to lead the team.

“No matter how you think you perform during one game, you’re gonna have to move on and focus on how you’re gonna play in the next game,” Gazzaniga said in an interview with the Daily Trojan on Tuesday. “Whether we struggled or we did great, we have to immediately put it behind us and focus on the next one.”

Losses to UCLA

Despite dominating the schedule thus far, the one blemish on USC’s record has come from its crosstown rival. In both tournaments, the Bruins have denied the Trojans a chance at a first-place finish. 

Typically, four members of the MPSF West — USC, UCLA, Cal and No. 1 Stanford (7-0, 1-0) — dominate the rest of the competition, rarely losing to outside foes. However, the preseason tournament bouts and conference play are still critical in determining which teams will be better positioned coming into the conference tournament and which will have the advantage in earning the two at-large bids in the NCAA Tournament.

Two early losses to the Bruins mean the Trojans will need to show up in conference play and at the MPSF Tournament if they hope to earn a top seed at the eight-team season finale, though a win over Cal at the Kalbus Invitational gives them some padding from missing the fray altogether.

Though the losses to UCLA looked drastically different, they ended with the same result.  In the first game, UCLA jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first half, digging the Trojans into a hole they couldn’t overcome, culminating in a 12-9 loss. 

In the second meeting, however, the rivals went back and forth, holding a 7-7 tie going into the fourth quarter. While the Bruins ultimately came out on top, beating USC 10-9, Moon said the game still showed a significant improvement for the Trojans’ growth.

“The first time we played them was the end of January … and we really didn’t show up to play,” Moon said. “The second time we played, we played really well. … The end result didn’t end up our way, but we’re getting better, which is really exciting.”

The Trojans will have one more meeting against UCLA when they host the Bruins on April 4 at 1 p.m. at Uytengsu Aquatics Center, though they will likely face off at least once in the postseason.

Lack of home games

The April 4 home game will be USC’s final home game of the season. It will also only be the Trojans’ fifth home game. USC’s last home game was over a month ago on Jan. 23, during its home-opener doubleheader against UC Santa Barbara (1-12, 0-1 Mountain West) and Biola University (2-11, 1-0 Western Water Polo Association). 

In the month since, the Trojans have travelled all around the state, competing in San Diego, Orange County and Northern California, with the shortest trip having been a 24-mile trip south to Long Beach. 

Senior attacker Maggie Johnson said that the few chances the Trojans have had and will have to play in front of their home crowd instilled the group with appreciation for the fanbase and the desire to compete at the highest level. 

“We always love playing at home,” Johnson said. “There’s always a great crowd, and this is the best pool in the country to get to play at, so we’re always really grateful when we get to play at home. So the goal is just to enjoy it and continue to get better.”

As the Trojans enter the most important stretch of the season, including a three-game stretch against Stanford, Cal and UCLA before the MPSF and NCAA tournaments, they’ll look to their experience thus far as they traverse through conference and postseason play. 

USC will return home to continue MPSF play against No. 8 Indiana University on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.