Water polo gets revenge, topples Stanford
The sounds of the victory bell echoed throughout Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Saturday afternoon after the Trojans’ 17-12 drubbing of Stanford. The entire team gathered around Head Coach Marko Pintaric while he emphatically rang the bell as pure elation filled the air from the Trojan faithful after the convincing win.
“A victory like this gives you extra motivation to work hard because hard work pays off and our team works super hard … it was a great match; big excitement to be part of this big crowd, this big Trojan family,” said Pintaric in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “[Ringing the bell] was great, I mean that’s why we play sports.”
In the battle between No. 1 and No. 2 in women’s water polo, USC came out on top. Stanford has had the Trojans’ number as of late, beating them by one goal earlier this season and in last year’s NCAA championship game by 3. But none of that mattered as USC handed Stanford their largest margin of defeat in more than three years.
The Trojans came out of the gates on the aggressive end, dominating much of the first period and jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Stanford answered quickly thanks to two penalty shots and tied the game back at three. The Trojans were able to hold onto a slim lead for the majority of the game, but the Cardinal were never far behind.
It was a high-intensity game, as both coaches had been shown yellow cards midway through the third quarter. With just one quarter remaining, the score was 11-10 with the Trojans clinging to a small lead. What kept Stanford in the game was the number of penalty shots they were awarded, earning a whopping six penalties and converting five of them. But it would all come down to the final quarter of play to separate these two formidable opponents.
“It’s not so much tactics at that point, it’s just who wants it more … [Pintaric] has faith in us and you can see it in his eyes that he really trusts us and he knows that we can do it,” said redshirt junior 2-meter Tilly Kearns. “Coming into that huddle and looking at each other in the eyes, it like reignites that trust, you look at your teammates, and you know that you’ve got it at that point.”
Kearns and the rest of the Trojans blew the Cardinal away in the fourth quarter scoring five unanswered goals and sealing the victory. It was a dominant showing, with Stanford being held to just one goal in the entire quarter; only the second time they’ve been held to just a single goal in the fourth quarter all season. The 17 goals Stanford allowed were the most they’ve ever allowed in their entire history of women’s water polo.
“[This win] definitely shows we’re moving in the right direction, and ultimately we still have a lot of things to fix but I think it’s in the right direction to our ultimate goal, which is the national championship,” said redshirt senior utility Bayley Weber after the win. “It was definitely a good momentum shift, and it’s a nice reward for how hard we’ve been training.”
Weber got another four goals Saturday in route to helping the Trojans secure the victory, including two in the decisive final quarter. Weber currently leads the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in goals on the season with 61. Those four goals today moved Weber into a tie for ninth on the all-time goals list for USC.
With 22 wins on the season now and 10 wins in a row, the Trojans will look to finish up the season undefeated in the MPSF and wrap up an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Currently, USC is sitting alone at the top of the MPSF with a perfect 4-0 conference record.
“The team is super excited, you know, to beat Stanford like this in front of our home crowd, but we do understand this is just the regular season,” Pintaric said. “[But] of course a victory like this gives you extra motivation to work hard.”
The Trojans will wrap up the rest of their home games next week with a double dose of action as they take on Loyola Marymount Thursday at 5 p.m. and then Arizona State on Saturday at 1 p.m. for senior day.