For the first time since 2021, USC women’s water polo is the NCAA champion. 

The No. 2 Trojans (25-3, 6-0 MPSF) claimed their eighth national title Sunday, avenging their championship-game losses over the last four years by beating No. 4 UC Berkeley (16-8, 3-3 MPSF). 

Head Coach Casey Moon captured his 12th total NCAA title with USC and his first as the head coach of the women’s program in year three. Among the winning Trojan team were tournament MVP sophomore attacker Emily Ausmus, All-Tournament First Team members redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Anna Reed and junior attacker Ava Stryker, and All-Tournament Second Team junior center Rachel Gazzaniga.

“Winning these championships, I’ll be the first to say, it’s not about me, it’s about my players,” Moon said in an online news conference Tuesday. “I have an incredible group of 22 young women that are youthful, goofballs, work hard and love to win.”

USC bests Cal for championship win

In a tournament upset Saturday, Cal delivered a 13-11 win over the defending NCAA champions, No. 1 Stanford (15-2, 5-1 MPSF), setting up the Trojans’ fourth matchup against the Golden Bears this season for all the marbles.

Despite USC sweeping the regular-season series against the Golden Bears, Moon said he was still wary of the threat they posed.

“Anything can happen. We’re only as good as our next game,” Moon said. “That’s the message I told [the team]. They’ve earned their opportunity to win a national championship, just like us, so they’re going to be on fire tomorrow when we play them, and we have got to be able to match their intensity.”

The Trojans got on the board first with a goal from senior utility Sinia Plotz. While Berkeley would capitalize on a penalty and 6-on-5 opportunity, goals from sophomore attacker Ava Knepper and Stryker kept USC’s lead at one.

USC kept its lead throughout the second period, with Ausmus adding two more goals of her own alongside one each from senior attacker Morgan Netherton and Stryker.

That one-goal lead would prove critical, as the second half turned into a defensive slugfest, spearheaded by a career night for Reed. The goalie recorded a career-high 14 saves and three steals, limiting Cal’s offense to just nine goals. 

Six of Reed’s saves came at crucial moments late in the fourth quarter, holding Cal scoreless for the last five and a half minutes, including a 6-on-5 defensive stand in the final 30 seconds. 

At 5-foot-7, Reed is relatively short for a goalie, but Moon said that her size has done nothing to prevent her from being the leader the Trojans need.

“It’s not about that. It’s about her heart,” Moon said. “Her heart gives her two feet; she’s seven feet in the goal. Her character and her will to win, and her fight, really make her a big goalie.” 

Trojans cruise past Lions, edge out Bruins

But to get to the championship, USC first had to get past the champion from the Golden Coast Conference, No. 6 Loyola Marymount University (23-5, 6-0 GCC) as well as its crosstown rival, No. 3 UCLA (21-5, 4-2 MPSF).

The Trojans started out slowly in Friday’s quarterfinal against LMU, falling behind by two late into the first quarter. However, back-to-back goals within 15 seconds from Netherton and Ausmus would get USC back on schedule. 

From there, the Trojans would hold the Lions to just three goals total for the remaining three periods, cruising to a 10-5 win to set up a semifinal rematch against UCLA. 

During the regular season, the Trojans and Bruins met in the pool three times, with USC falling to UCLA twice in February before avenging those losses with a win early April that secured the regular season MPSF title. That record, alongside the historic rivalry and tournament atmosphere, would prove to be the makings of an instant classic. 

In the first quarter, Ausmus opened up with two goals, one during a 6-on-5 power play. While USC drew just eight exclusions to UCLA’s 12, the Trojans capitalized on their chances, scoring on five 6-on-5 goals to the Bruins’ two. Ausmus and Netherton would deliver two more 6-on-5 goals to expand the Trojan lead by two heading into halftime. 

Coming out of the break, UCLA controlled the pace of the game. Down 8-6, the Bruins rattled off three straight goals. Drawing six penalties in the third quarter, the Trojans were forced into a corner down 9-8.

Senior attacker Maggie Johnson said that the team’s resilience, built by those early losses to the Bruins, was the key factor in climbing back.

“Look at our body of work. Look what we’ve been able to do,” Johnson said in an online news conference Tuesday. “When we went down against UCLA, there was never a doubt that we could climb back because of those experiences and those kinds of challenging moments.”

In the final period, Johnson would deliver the equalizer, followed up by a counter-attack goal from sophomore center Alma Yaacobi to put USC up two with 4:36 left. While the Bruins answered back with a goal of their own, in the final defensive stand, a key steal from Stryker would put the game away and send the Trojans back to the NCAA championship match.

Trojans look to 2027

When the buzzer sounded, Trojan players, fans and coaches alike erupted into cheers at the sight of the program returning to the top of the podium after falling in the final in their last three attempts.

“At the beginning of this season, we said that we wanted to focus on our season as a mountain climb [and] take it one day at a time, one step at a time,” Moon said. “When we started that tournament on Friday, we said, ‘The summit is close.’ … I’m so proud of our women.”

With USC’s core of Ausmus, Reed, Gazzaniga and others returning next year, the Trojans will turn their focus to the 2027 season as they look to repeat as champions for the first time in program history.