University Southern California Trojans
No. 1 Men's Water Polo Suffers First Loss
June 21, 1999 | Men's Water Polo
October 19, 1998
PALO ALTO, Calif. - After opening the season with a school-record 11 straight wins, the top-ranked USC men's water polo team finally suffered a loss and placed fifth at the Northern California Tournament, hosted by Stanford, over the weekend.
On Saturday, the Trojans may have set a school record for points in a 28-3 victory over UC Davis. But USC didn't have many goals left for the second game of the day, and the Trojans were shocked by Pacific, 7-5.
The Trojans rebounded, however, and beat California, 9-7 in overtime, and Pepperdine, 10-4, on Sunday to claim fifth place.
USC is now 13-1 on the year.
In the UC Davis rout, junior driver Allen Basso had six goals, freshman 2-meter man Ivan Babic had five points and junior 2-meter man James Castle had five goals. The 28 points is the most since at least 1979, as far back as records go for USC.
Senior driver Marko Pintaric had two goals as USC lost to Pacific.
The loss dropped USC into the losers' bracket, and the Trojans came back from a 5-1 deficit to beat Cal in overtime. Pintaric led the way with three goals.
Sophomore driver George Csasazar, the Trojans' leading scorer, had five goals in the fifth-place game as the Trojans beat Pepperdine.
USC next travels to UC Irvine on Saturday (Oct. 24) at noon for an important MPSF match.
