With an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship on the line, USC men’s water polo went into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament over the weekend looking for its fourth title in a row. The Trojans, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, accomplished just that —  vanquishing an unrelenting third-seeded Stanford and dominating top-seeded UCLA along the way.

USC’s (21-3, 4-2) path began with a Friday afternoon match against seventh-seeded Austin College (9-10, 5-3), which kicked off the tournament with a 21-6 beatdown over Wheaton College (1-20, 1-7) earlier in the day. 

A strong start by the Trojans rapidly extinguished any hope for a highly improbable Austin upset. USC hopped into the lead immediately after freshman 2-meter Strahinja Krstić scored 14 seconds in on a quick top-left-corner snipe. The game was seemingly over early, as the Trojans led 8-1 by the end of the first period, thanks to hat tricks from Krstić and senior utility Andrej Grgurevic.

Redshirt sophomore driver Chase Landa scored five goals over the next three periods — including a fourth-quarter hat trick — giving him a new career high and doubling his season total in one night. 

A strong defensive structure limited Austin to five goals on 31 attempts, earning USC a 24-5 win in the first round.

Back and forth against Stanford

The Trojans’ victory set up a meeting the following day against Stanford (17-7, 2-4) in the semifinal. After high-scoring affairs for both teams the day before, Saturday saw a much lower volume of goals but in no way lacked action, as USC battled to the end for an 11-10 win. 

Stanford sophomore attacker Ryan Ohl drew first blood, and two impressive saves by senior goalkeeper West Temkin kept the Trojans scoreless for much of the first quarter; but junior utility Stefan Branković brought USC to life with two goals and a slick pass to Krstić for the finish to end the quarter up 3-1.

The Trojans limited Stanford’s offensive zone time to start the second quarter, and Branković finished off his hat trick less than three minutes in. Halfway through the period, freshman driver Efe Naipoglu scored to make it a 5-1 match. 

However, the tides changed with three minutes left in the second. Two quick goals put the Cardinal within two, and the Trojans suffered a massive loss as Branković earned a game exclusion after hitting redshirt senior attacker Gianpiero Di Martire in the face. 

Despite a newly recharged Stanford applying pressure, the Trojans were able to stanch the bleeding, and junior driver Robert López Duart scored his only goal of the match to help end the half 6-3. 

After López Duart scored five goals in the first matchup with Stanford on Sep. 21, the Cardinal have been able to dim the Trojans’ top offensive weapon, limiting him to one goal in each of their last three matches. However, USC put its depth on display, as six other Trojans scored to help make up for López Duart’s production. 

Stanford dominated to start the third quarter and tied the game at 7-7, setting up what became a nail-biting finish. The teams exchanged goals until Krstić delivered a big-time response 12 seconds before the third ended, scoring his second goal of the match despite being double-teamed to bring the Trojans to a 9-8 lead. 

Late in the fourth, with the Trojans up 11-9, Stanford sophomore driver Ben Forer scored his third goal of the match to bring the Cardinal within one with a minute left in the game; but patience by the Trojans allowed them to keep possession and run down the clock to end the game, securing a spot in the tournament final.

Big first half secures the win

For the second straight year, the tournament came down to a Sunday afternoon meeting with top-seeded UCLA. The Bruins started the tournament with a walloping 36-4 win over Penn State Behrend (8-20, 2-1) and a narrow 11-9 win over UC Berkeley (15-8, 1-5). 

After splitting the regular season series 1-1, the top-two-ranked teams for most of the season were meeting again — meaning this final could not be anything but a dog fight. With such a tough opponent, USC’s focus was defense. 

On Sunday, that effort was clear; USC dominated offensively and defensively from the start. 

It took nearly three minutes for the scoring to start after a shot from the outside by López Duart bounced off multiple bodies and made it in the net, sparking a big first half for the Trojans. 

Despite having six exclusions and a penalty to UCLA’s two exclusions, the Trojans led 10-5 by the end of the first half. A four-goal run in the second quarter — capped off by a Krstić goal off a quick pass from Branković that highlighted their connection — helped USC rack up the huge halftime lead. 

Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Charles Mills’ eight saves in the first half — five coming in the first quarter — put a damper on the Bruins’ usual scoring prowess, limiting them to five goals on 18 attempts. 

On the other side, USC was highly efficient against the usually reliable redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Nate Tauscher, scoring 10 goals on 12 attempts. Tauscher ended the game with a 22.2% save percentage, his season-worst across a full game. 

“They really executed a game plan,” Head Coach Marko Pintaric said in a postgame interview on Overnght. “There was [the] exact game plan defensively that we wanted to do. Defense won this game.” 

The Bruins were never able to recover after relinquishing such a large lead to the Trojans. Although UCLA outscored USC in the second half by two goals, the Trojans maintained control of the game with timely goals from their stars.

With four minutes left in the match, Krstić scored another big goal to put USC ahead 13-9, but continued the Trojans’ exclusion woes as a celebration directed at the Bruins’ bench earned him another exclusion. The Trojans ended the match with 13 exclusions to UCLA’s seven, and the Bruins capitalized on those, scoring five power-play goals. 

UCLA came within two goals late in the fourth quarter, but a goal by Naipoglu sealed a 14-11 win for the Trojans. 

“I can’t be prouder than this group that they left everything [out there] today, everything,” Pintaric said. 

For López Duart, who had six goals and three assists over the weekend, the focus shifts to the NCAA Championship. 

“We [started] playing amazing defense, shot blocking. The goalie — no words. … On offense, things went well,” López Duart said. “And now just keep going, see the mistakes and focus for NCAA.”

With the MPSF Tournament down, the Trojans will now turn to the NCAA Championship, where they have been the runner-up for four of the last five years. The first round is set to begin Dec. 5 at Avery Aquatic Center in Palo Alto, where USC will face Concordia University Irvine (21-12, 5-1 Western Water Polo Association) to start the tournament.