Women of Troy travel to Irvine for annual tourney

The past two weekends have treated the defending national champion USC women’s water polo team well, as they opened the season with an eight-game winning streak after claiming the Triton Invitational and Lancer Invitational titles.

During the stretch, the Women of Troy have bolted out of the gates offensively in addition to exhibiting stonewall defense, outscoring their opponents 145-20.

Though the ample offensive production has been a product of a variety of scorers, junior driver Monica Vavic is quickly filling the stat sheet. Through just eight games, USC’s No. 11 all-time career scoring leader has posted 26 goals — bringing her career total to 155.

“Monica has been incredible on offense and defense,” said senior attacker Olivia Cummins, who registered four goals of her own over four games at the Lancer Invitational. “She’s attacking and getting back, giving up few mistakes and just continuing to strike on offense.”

But for USC, the real test has yet to come. After playing against some weaker opponents so far, National Coach of the Year Jovan Vavic and his team have one of their toughest weekends of the season ahead — the Women of Troy will travel to Irvine, Calif. to compete in the UCI Invitational.

USC — the reigning UCI Invitational champion — finds itself in a pool of highly talented squads, including No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 UCLA. Both of these teams proved to be hefty speed bumps in last year’s road to the championship as Vavic’s team squeaked past UCLA with an 11-10 victory in the semifinals before taking down Stanford 13-10 in the finals.

“We have to go into every game with the same mindset. You practice for each game, and maybe they might not be as tough, but they’re practice for the tough games,” Cummins said. Cummins, who played her freshman season for UCI before transferring to USC — about the differing skill levels of the early-season opponents. “If you’re not focusing, not communicating, not executing the plays correctly, then how are you going to do it in tough situations?”

The Women of Troy will begin their title defense early Saturday morning with an 8 a.m. start against Cal State Bakersfield. The Roadrunners will enter the contest with a 5-9 record, having dropped all eight of their matchups against top-20 teams this season.

Depending on the results of the early session, the Trojans will either face No. 8 Loyola Marymount (5-3) or have a rematch of the Triton Invitational game against No. 10 Cal State Northridge (7-3) in the second game of the doubleheader.

Unlike CSU Bakersfield, the Lions of LMU have had some success against tougher opponents, tallying three wins against ranked teams so far this season.

In the first meeting between the Women of Troy and Cal State Northridge this season, the ball-hawking USC defense proved too fierce for the Matadors, as the Women of Troy recorded their sixth shutout in program history with a 13-0 victory. Senior goalie Flora Bolonyai had a standout 10-save performance in the contest, contributing to her résumé and claiming that week’s MSPF Player of the Week award.

Junior driver Sara Salamon emphasized the team’s focus heading into the weekend — the lone criticism Coach Vavic shared after last tournament: utilizing and improving the fast break.

“We need to secure the fast break and make sure we are constantly aware,” Salamon said. “Our goal is to play well, look for the open player, play good defense and keep pushing our offense.”