It's the start of a new era for USC men's water polo. Gone are all-time leading scorers Nikola Vavic and Kostas Genidounias, and the national championship streak that collectively defined the program in recent history.
Promising young talents are in to fill their place like goalie McQuin Baron (pictured), who after just one year with the Trojans set the record for most single-season saves with 288. It's a powerful sophomore corps that makes up the bulk of USC's roster this season and aims to win the program's eighth NCAA championship in 10 years.
While only three players have more than a year of experience with the program, Baron is quick to point out that for the Trojans, age really is just a number.
"Even though we are very young, we're also very experienced in our youth," said Baron. "I'm on the USA team, Lachlan Edwards is on the Australian national team, Bryce Hoerman's been on the national team, Nick Silvers and Nick Lavayen are freshman and they've played through the national team pipeline."
Using the memory of last year's NCAA title match loss to crosstown foe UCLA to fuel their fire this season seems like a given, but Baron insists that for the team, it's less about playing with a chip on their shoulder as it is a pure drive to succeed.
"We want to be back on top, we want to be champions again," he said. "We're not looking at last year as our motivation. Our motivation is just because we want to win as a team, to win NCAAs."
That isn't to say they've put the loss in their rearview mirror entirely, though.
"Obviously you think about it; I think about it daily," said Baron. "The background on my phone is the UCLA team winning because it's a daily reminder to me. Let's say I'm not feeling practice or something, I look at my phone and it's like, 'Come on, look what happened last year.'"
With six dominant wins already under their belt, the No. 2 ranked Trojans will face their first real test of the season this weekend at the Kap7 NorCal Invitational in Palo Alto. The tournament features No. 1 UCLA, No. 3 Cal and No. 4 Stanford.
