No. 1 USC Eyes Eighth Straight SoCal Crown

USC sets up defense of its seven straight SoCal Tournament titles this weekend.

No. 1 USC Eyes Eighth Straight SoCal Crown

September 29, 2010 | Men's Water Polo

Sept. 29, 2010

THIS WEEK
USC men's water polo has racked up an 11-game winning streak as the Trojans prepare to defend a long string of SoCal Tournament titles this weekend. Now boasting seven consecutive SoCal crowns, USC sets up to work on gathering in its eighth straight as the Trojans head across town to Westwood for competition at the 2010 SoCal Tournament hosted by UCLA on Oct. 2-3. USC (11-0) opens up against Redlands at 8 a.m. on Saturday (Oct. 2) before taking on either No. 8 Long Beach State or No. 9 Pepperdine that afternoon. A winning first day of action could put USC up against Stanford for the first time this season in a semifinal showdown to earn the right to a spot in the title match. Sunday's semifinal would be at 10:40 a.m., with the title match at 5:20 p.m. on Sunday preceded by a 4 p.m. third-place match.

RANKINGS
After sitting at No. 4 for the first two weeks of the year and a brief stint at No. 3 last week, the back-to-back NCAA champs have taken over the top spot in the land, and are again ranked No. 1 in this week's nation poll. The other three teams in USC's SoCal Tournament bracket are unranked Redlands, No. 8 Long Beach State and No. 9 Pepperdine.

SOCAL TOURNEY NOTES
This year's edition of the SoCal Tournament will take place at UCLA this weekend and will include all nine MPSF teams, along with competitive teams from around the country. Non-California-based powers Princeton and St. Francis are making the trip to Westwood, along with Concordia, LMU, Redlands, Santa Clara and UC San Diego. All told, 13 of the top 14 ranked teams in the nation will be in the mix, with 15 teams ranked in this week's national top-20. Last year, USC won its seventh consecutive SoCal tournament title, beating UCLA 9-8 in the semifinals to avenge the Trojans' only loss of the season to that point. USC then faced Cal in the title match, winning 7-6 to extend the Trojans' domination at the tourney. USC had opened the weekend with a 21-4 win over Bucknell and a 17-3 win over UC Santa Barbara on the first day of action. This year, top-seeded USC is bracketed with Redlands, #8 Long Beach State and #9 Pepperdine. CLICK HERE for SoCal Tournament Central

LAST WEEK
USC gathered up some momentum for its MPSF opener by snagging a pair of Friday wins at the Lancer Invitational. The Trojans topped Fresno Pacific 21-4 and No. 16 Cal Baptist 11-7 that day before heading to Malibu on Saturday to kick off conference play. With a 5-0 shutout performance against the Waves in the first frame, USC powered ahead 8-1 by halftime. The Trojans would balloon that lead to 13-3 with four minutes remaining, and wound up with a 13-4 win to get USC's first MPSF victory in the books. Michael Rosenthal and Nikola Vavic led the way with three goals apiece in the win. The previous day, USC's offense was highlighted by a career-high four goals from Brian Boswell in the win over Fresno Pacific and a hat trick from Matt Burton against Cal Baptist.

KURZEKA CRUSHES THE COMPETITION
Junior Peter Kurzeka put in a big day's work on the final day of play at the NorCal Tournament, scoring seven goals - including the game-winning goals - in two games to help power the No. 3 Trojans to two upsets en route to the winning the tournament championships. For his efforts, Kurzeka was named the MPSF Mikasa Player of the Week, marking the second straight week that a Trojan has picked up the honor. Kurzeka scored four goals against top-ranked host California in the NorCal Tournament semifinal, finishing off the Bears by getting USC up 12-10 in the fourth in an eventual 12-11 win to get USC into the title match. In a rematch of the 2009 NCAA Championship, Kurzeka scored three goals against No. 2 UCLA, including the game-winner with four seconds remaining for an 11-10 USC victory. That kept the Trojans undefeated on the year with an 8-0 record. Kurzeka is now fourth on the team in scoring with 17 goals to date.

ON THE RISE
USC junior Joel Dennerley jumped two places on the USC career saves ladder over the Sept. 11-12 weekend and soon earned his fifth career pick as the MPSF Player of the Week. With a total of 17 saves in six periods played in a winning weekend by the Trojans, Dennerley became the first USC player to earn conference honors this season. Dennerley allowed only two goals while compiling seven saves in the first half of USC's 16-4 win over No. 10 Long Beach State in the Trojans' home opener. The next day, Dennerley tallied 10 saves in a 10-5 win at No. 8 LMU and shut out the Lions through the entire second half. Dennerley took over at No. 7 all-time in career saves with that weekend's work, and currently holds 487 career saves to date.

NORCAL KNOCKOUT
After passing up Navy 15-6 and beating UC Irvine 14-10 to open the NorCal Tournament, USC kicked off the second day with a win over top-seeded host Cal before taking down UCLA in the title match. Up 2-1 in the first period against then-No. 1 Cal, the Trojans rocked the Bears with six goals in the second frame to jump ahead 8-4 at halftime. Cal would shake things up by roaring back with an equally big third period to close the gap, pushing the game to a 10-10 lockup entering the fourth period. With the game up in the air in the fourth, USC got ahead 11-10 when Nikola Vavic converted on a 5-meter penalty shot. With 5:52 to go, Peter Kurzeka notched his fourth goal of the game to punch the Trojans ahead 12-10. Cal would score to make it a one-goal game with 1:31 to go, and had a shot at equalizing late in the match, only to have USC goalie Joel Dennerley make the stop with six seconds left and lock down the win for USC. Up against rival UCLA in the afternoon's championship game - a rematch of the 2009 NCAA championship - the Trojans again built up a healthy lead on their opponents. USC allowed just two Bruin goals in the first half while taking a 5-2 lead by halftime. Entering the final frame, USC was up 8-4, but UCLA forced its way back into the game in the fourth period. The Bruins managed six goals in the period as the teams were locked 10-10 with time draining. With four seconds to go, however, Kurzeka struck again, rounding out a hat trick for himself in the game and punching USC ahead 11-10 to shut things down on the NorCal Tournament championship for the Trojans.

ON THE BOARD
USC's opening weekend was a chance for the Trojan newcomers to make a statement in their debut. Redshirt freshman Stephen Siri led the charge with hat trick to kick off his Trojan career. Also in their first USC action, Tobias Preuss and Mace Rapsey each added a pair, with fellow newcomers Nikola Vavic and Rex Butler also getting in on the scoring action against Redlands. The following day, freshmen Jeremy Davie, Max Hurst-Mendoza and Connor Virjee all notched their first goals as Trojans in the win over Whittier, while redshirt sophomore goalie Jimmy Friedrich saw his first time in the cage after being sidelined by injuries.

BACK IN ACTION
USC returns three players who boast NCAA title-winning experience. All three juniors have known nothing but national championship runs in their time as Trojans. All-American goalie Joel Dennerley also has fellow All-American Peter Kurzeka and their fellow junior Matt Burton back as the backbone of USC roster. It's a young group, but this year's batch of Trojans have already experience USC's winning tradition. Including junior two-time NCAA champs Burton, Dennerley and Kurzeka, USC has Brian Boswell and Michael Rosenthal returning from the Trojans' latest NCAA visit. Goalie Will Simon and field players Zayne Belal, Billy Evashwick, Mason Hawthorne, Forest Monroe, Jon Leopold and Andrew Reego also saw game action in the 2009 regular season and are back in the water for 2010.

SUPER UNKNOWNS
Opponents will get to know USC's newest Trojans pretty quickly this year. A set of powerful imports are set to make a splash, as Australians Jeremy Davie and Mace Rapsey are joined by Croatian Ivan Kustic and German Tobias Preuss for their first seasons as Trojans. Cem Carak hails from Turkey and is back from a redshirt season last year. Meanwhile, USC has a powerful blend of true and redshirt freshmen welcomed into the fold. Andy Hayes, Tommy Friedrich and Stephen Siri all redshirted the 2009 season to build up power for 2010. That crew will be joined by more true freshmen out of the USA -- Rex Butler, Max Hurst-Mendoza, Zach Lucas, Jack Plaga, Nikola Vavic and Connor Virjee -- to round off the capped-up talent for USC in 2010.

SENIOR SEND-OFF
USC graduated a large group from last year's NCAA championship squad, eight of whom were members of both USC's title-winning rosters. Those departed 2009 seniors with back-to-back NCAA crowns are: Anthony Artukovich, Shea Buckner, J.W. Krumpholz, Justin Rappel, Matt Sagehorn, Nico Sardo, Kyle Sterling and Jordan Thompson.

2009 RECAP
The 2009 Trojans claimed back-to-back national championships for the first time in program history with a 7-6 win over UCLA in last season's NCAA title match. The Trojans also made history as the first team ever to make five straight NCAA final appearances on the way to wrapping up the year as champs with a 26-2 overall record. It was USC's 24th NCAA appearance and fifth national championship. Jovan Vavic was named the National Coach of the Year, and senior J.W. Krumpholz was the National Player of the Year as well as the eventual Cutino Award winner for the second straight year. Eight Trojans earned All-American honors, and 19 different players scored on the year. For the fifth straight year, USC led the nation in team defense (5.5 gapg), while the offense averaged 11.3 gpg. All told, USC outscored its opponents 316-154 in 2009.