Thursday, October 5
Los Angeles, CA
5:00 PM
USC
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Long Beach State
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UT
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Photo by: Dan Avila
Top-Ranked Trojans Host 49ers Thursday, Visit Gauchos Sunday
October 04, 2017 | Men's Water Polo, Features
USC takes over the top spot in the national poll.
THIS WEEK
The No. 1 Trojans have two tests on the docket this week, starting with a home bout against No. 7 Long Beach State. USC and the 49ers are set to tangle at 5 p.m. on Thursday (Oct. 5) at Uytengsu Aquatics Center. On Sunday (Oct. 8), the Trojans will head to Santa Barbara for a 12 p.m. matchup against the No. 8 Gauchos.
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RANKINGS
USC started its 2017 journey holding strong at No. 2 in the preseason national rankings. The Trojans wrapped 2016 at No. 2 in the land after reaching the NCAA final for the 12th consecutive season. Entering the sixth week of 2017 competition, USC has climbed to No. 1 in the nation. The Trojans were last ranked No. 1 last November entering the 2016 MPSF and NCAA tournaments.
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SCOUTING LBSU
The No. 7 49ers are 9-6 overall after a 12-9 loss at Cal last week. Ivan Gvozdanovic leads UCSB in scoring with 22 goals, and goalie Justyn Barrios is averaging 8.2 saves and 10.4 goals against per game. USC is 71-12 all-time against the Gauchos with wins in the past 53 straight meetings. Last year, USC beat UCSB 14-3 and 16-6 in the teams' two meetings.Â
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SCOUTING UCSB
The No. 8 Gauchos are 8-5 overall after a 14-10 loss to Pacific last week. Austin Stewart leads LBSU in scoring with 29 goals, and goalie Thomas Freeman is averaging 9.0 saves and 11.2 goals against per game. USC is 68-15 all-time against the 49ers with wins in the past 29 straight meetings, including a 13-5 USC win last month at the Aggie Roundup. Last year, USC beat LBSU 9-4 at the Mountain Pacific Invitational and 13-8 in Long Beach.Â
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LAST WEEK
USC grabbed three victories last week, first drumming up back-to-back wins out at the Lancer Joust. There, the Trojans followed up a 16-6 win over No. 15 host Cal Baptist with a hefty 24-3 win over Fresno Pacific. In that second match, two Trojans busted loose with new career highs. Senior Blake Edwards tallied seven goals — the most in a single game by a Trojan since 2014 and the third most in program history — in the win, while redshirt sophomore Sam Slobodien blasted six goals for the Trojan cause. USC surrendered the first goal of the day, but made up that ground quickly against the host Lancers. Cal Baptist wouldn't go away easily, though, pulling back to force a 3-3 lockup in the first before USC fired off three in a row — including back-to-back blasts from Marko Vavic — before the end of the frame. USC would move out to a 9-4 halftime lead, then poured out five goals in the third for a lift to lead it 14-6 entering the final frame. There, the Trojan defense pitched a shutout while Murphy Slater slotted two goals to finish out a 16-6 win for the Trojans. Vavic was the high scorer in that one, registering four in the win, with Edwards punching in a hat trick. Goalie McQuin Baron, meanwhile, hauled in 10 saves in a full game's work in the cage. Both Trojans stayed hot-handed in the next game. Up against Fresno Pacific just minutes after the close of the win over Cal Baptist, USC crafted a 2-0 lead that was soon closed down to one with a 5-meter penalty shot from the Sunbirds. The Trojans would reel off eight straight goals from there to take full control, leading 10-1 before Fresno Pacific managed to stop the run. Slobodien had a new career high locked in by halftime, scoring five of USC's 13 first-half goals. That was good enough for a new career high for the two-meter man, but he'd add to the count late in the game to round out his six-goal effort. So, too, would Blake Edwards charge up a career mark for himself in the game. The Aussie had four goals by halftime, then hammered in three more in the second half. His seventh goal set a new high for Edwards, making him one of just six Trojans to score seven or more in a single game. Further, a second-half hat trick from Vavic pulled the freshman to four goals in the game, while USC rattled off the last 12 goals of the match to win it 24-3. Simon Wu manned the cage in the first half, with Will Rubschlager taking over in the second half and helping to anchor a four-frame shutout by the USC defense. The next day, USC made a strong stand at No. 9 Pepperdine's home pool to churn out an 11-5 win over the Waves in Malibu. The Trojan defense won the day in allowing only two Pepperdine goals in the first three frames while USC's balanced scoring attack kept padding the Trojan advantage. USC received 10 saves from Baron and goals from eight different Trojans in the win. The Trojans scored the first five goals of the matchup with Pepperdine, posting a first-frame shutout while building a 4-0 lead on goals from Vavic, Thomas Dunstan, Matt Maier and Matteo Morelli. Maier's second of the day made it a 5-0 USC rally before the Waves broke through. Morelli delivered his second soon after, and USC gripped a 6-1 lead at halftime. Two new Trojan scorers — Zach D'Sa and Marin Dasic — would go back-to-back after a Pepperdine goal to move USC ahead 8-2 entering the fourth. There, Pepperdine was able to muster up three goals, but USC matched that output to wrap the game as a decisive 11-5 Trojan victory.
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RECORD-BREAKING BARON
On Sept. 16 in USC's first-ever meeting with MIT, senior goalie McQuin Baron broke USC's all-time career saves record with his fifth save of the game. That notched Baron's 856th save to edge out previous leader Joel Dennerley, who had set the USC record during his senior season on Sept. 18, 2011 — almost exactly six years earlier. Baron already held the USC record for single-season saves, set his freshman year with 288 saves collected in 2014. Now with 910 career saves to his name, Baron looks to bulk up his numbers further as the 2016 Cutino Award winner and Olympian continues to man the cage for the Trojans and keep his team in pursuit of a NCAA championship.Â
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CLIMB ON
While McQuin Baron tops the saves leaderboard at USC with his 930 career stops, a set of All-American senior sharpshooters are charging up the scoring charts. After four weeks of work in 2017, Blake Edwards has climbed to No. 14 all-time with 140 career goals, closely followed by Grant Stein at No. 16 with 134. Just steps behind are Matteo Morelli at No. 19 with 130 goals and Lachlan Edwards at No. 21 in USC history with 127. Meanwhile, on the MPSF career charts, Baron is now just two saves from the No. 2 spot held by UCLA's Garrett Danner (932). Pacific's Alex Malkis holds the MPSF record with 1,057 career saves from 2010-13.
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ALL-AMERICAN EDGE
With eight All-Americans back in the water for 2017, USC head coach Jovan Vavic has more All-American talent than he has room for in his starting lineup. In that core group of decorated All-Americans, seven are seniors. Two of them are repeat team captains — James Walters and returning top scorer Blake Edwards — both two-time All-Americans. One is Cutino Award winner McQuin Baron, who will soon be taking over as USC's all-time saves leader. Three more Trojan All-Americans — Matteo Morelli, Lachlan Edwards and Grant Stein — accumulated over 100 combined goals last year. The seventh — standing out as the brains of the group — is NCAA Elite 90 Award winner Mihajlo Milicevic, who stars as a stingy defender for the Trojan cause. The only first-time All-American in the crew is on his way in to his second season at USC, as sophomore Matt Maier returns to the pool as the 2016 MPSF Newcomer of the Year.Â
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BY THE NUMBERS
Now 17 games deep into 2017, the Trojans have displayed widespread scoring ability. Twenty-one Trojans scored on USC's first day of action — a doubleheader at the UCLA Mini Invitational. Since then, senior Blake Edwards stands as the most prolific Trojan to date with 30 goals, followed by freshman Marko Vavic with 29 and senior Grant Stein with 24. Defensively, three goalies have capped up in the cage. McQuin Baron has appeared in 16 games, with double-digit saves six games. He's averaging 9.4 saves and 5.3 goals-against per game. Will Rubschlager and Simon Wu have shared time in backup roles to Baron, combining for 44 saves. In all, USC has outscored opponents 285-91. As a team, USC ranks No. 1 in the MPSF in defense (5.35 gapg) and in offense (16.77 gpg).
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DEPTH CHARGE
As valuable as USC's sizeable senior class is, Jovan Vavic has his eyes on a few other returners as linchpins in this season's efforts. Now sophomores, Olympian Thomas Dunstan, MPSF Newcomer of the Year Matt Maier and FINA Junior World Championship silver medalist Marin Dasic are even more prepared to be impact players for the Trojans. Junior Zach D'Sa and redshirt sophomore Daniel Leong both had breakout seasons last year and are primed for major playing time in 2017. Redshirt junior Tim Leong has also maneuvered his way into an increased role, while redshirt sophomore Sam Slobodien, too, made major strides last season and during the summer, lining himself up for extra duty at the two-meter mark along with fellow centers Maier, James Walters and Lachlan Edwards. In all, the Trojans return 90 percent of their scoring production from last season as well as their entire goalkeeping corps.Â
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NEW CREW
Among the talented Trojan youth movement, Vavic taps redshirt freshmen Luke Wyatt, Chas Hornecker and Luka Karaman and true freshmen Marko Vavic and Christian Hockenbury as the brightest stars who are seeing the benefits of their hard work and skills developed in the run-up to this 2017 campaign. At 6-foot-6 and with U.S. National Team experience, Vavic stands to be a quick and powerful fit into his father's gameplan. Marko is the third of head coach Jovan Vavic's children to cap up at USC, following in the footsteps of older brother Nikola and sister Monica, who won a combined five NCAA Championships as Trojans.
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OPENING DAY
Twenty-one Trojans got on the scoresheets in USC's season-opening action at the UCLA Mini Invitational. Fifteen Trojans logged goals in each game as USC posted a 27-3 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps followed by a 24-3 win over Pomona-Pitzer. Along the way, five Trojans — Marko Vavic, Troy Furniss, Christian Emerson, Christian Hockenbury and Chas Hornecker — registered their first career goals at USC. Â
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TROJAN TRAVELS
In July, the Trojans took a trip through international waters, soaking up some sun while splashing down in seas, pools and rivers across France, Italy, Croatia and Montenegro. The Trojans set up camp in Nice (France), Recco (Italy), Split (Croatia) and Herceg Novi (Montenegro) while scrimmaging local teams and training for the upcoming 2017 season back in the USA. That European adventure brought the entire USC squad together as a team, offering up invaluable opportunities to gel in the water and out. In fact, the last three USC teams to take a similar summer training trip to Europe came back to the USA and won the national championship that same year. It's a theme that bodes well for the 2017 Trojans, who boast a senior class that is 13 Trojans strong and who have 11 redshirt freshmen and newcomers lined up for their first official action this season.
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AND NOW, THIS
Now in his 23rd year at the helm of the USC water polo program, Jovan Vavic has guided the Trojans to the NCAA title match every season for the past 12 years. He's captured seven championships during that stretch. Last season, USC manufactured a 24-2 overall record, losing just one road game during the regular season, winning the MPSF Championship and then falling in a frustrating NCAA final that went to overtime in its opponent's home pool. This year, the Trojans are lined up as host of the 2017 NCAA Tournament, set for Dec. 2-3 at USC's own Uytengsu Aquatics Center. The last time the Trojans hosted the national championship, they capped it off by hoisting the 2012 championship trophy. This year, USC aims to once again successfully defend the Trojans' home waters while adding a 10th NCAA trophy to the men's collection of championships.Â
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MOUNTAIN PACIFIC INVITATIONAL RECAP
USC scored the first seven goals to keep the Trojans in the driver's seat in the first game of the day at the 2017 Mountain Pacific Invitational at Uytengsu Aquatics Center. Twelve Trojans scored in the win, while three USC goalies logged time in the cage to help notch an 18-9 win over San José State. The next day, USC shrugged off a three-goal deficit in the quarterfinals and a two-goal hole in the semis to claim two tight comeback wins. The Trojans had to get down to business for a fourth-quarter comeback to beat No. 10 UC Irvine 10-9 in the morning's quarterfinals. That set up a rematch with No. 3 Stanford in the evening's semifinals, where USC showed it still had some fight left to make a late move to beat the Cardinal 11-10. The Anteaters were up 9-6 on the Trojans entering the final eight minutes of regulation. After McQuin Baron settled in a made a key power play save, Blake Edwards earned a 5-meter penalty shot that Matteo Morelli promptly deposited into the back of the net to make it 9-7 UC Irvine with 4:49 to go. Marko Vavic would force an Anteater turnover next, and Edwards took it back the other way for the finishing touch to get USC within one. Another Baron save keyed another USC attack. Morelli found Vavic for the searing strike that equalized the game for the first time since the 3:44 mark of the first period. After a Lachlan Edwards field block squashed UC Irvine's next offensive series, Matt Maier unleashed an incredible nearside score to lift USC ahead 10-9 with 2:30 to go. USC's defense would step up for the rest, and the Trojans averted a dire situation to claim the comeback victory and advance to the evening's semifinals. USC gripped a 3-1 lead in the first period of play, but would fall behind 8-7 entering the fourth. On a 6-on-5, Morelli found Thomas Dunstan for the rocket that leveled it at 8-8 early in the fourth. A takeaway from Dunstan later helped get USC back on the attack, and it was Lachlan Edwards who finally got his just reward for earning countless ejections from his 2-meter spot. On this 6-on-5, Vavic hit Edwards for a booming dunk at the post to nudge USC ahead 9-8 with 5:09 on the clock. Stanford was clearly not going away, however, and the Cardinal scored off the foul next to snarl up the score once more. Again, a convincing USC 6-on-5 did the trick for the Trojans, who had Morelli set up another teammate for the go-ahead blast. Blake Edwards delivered this one, netting his second goal of the game and a 10-9 USC lead with 3:05 to go. Stanford would fire off another equalizer not 20 seconds later, and although the next USC power play would be stopped by Stanford goalie Drew Holland, Morelli would take matters in his own hands in the final minute. The Italian let loose a laser that put USC on top 11-10 with 28 ticks to go. Baron would come up big with a late save, and USC was able to hang on for the crucial comeback victory. Down by three goals with 4:13 left in Sunday's title match vs. UCLA, USC dug deep to carve the deficit down to one with 1:47 on the clock. Dunstan earned a power play for his Trojans, and Morelli served up his seventh assist of the tournament in finding Stein for a ripper that made it 12-10 at 3:07. After turning away the Bruins, USC got back on the attack, with Blake Edwards finding the hot-handed Stein for a sizzling skip that cut it to 12-11. Edwards would come up with a steal next, and USC called timeout with 1:20 to go. The referee's whistle would turn the ball back to the Bruins soon after, however, but Vavic was able to come up with a steal with 37 seconds left. Lachlan Edwards let loose a brilliant backhand, but it slammed the post, and USC's next try to equalize was off the mark. That left the ball in UCLA's hands for the final possession, and the Bruins opted to pad its lead with a last-second strike that finished things as a 13-11 UCLA win for USC's first loss of 2017.
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