Saturday, October 20
Long Beach, CA
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Long Beach State
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Back On Top, No. 1 Trojans Face Two Top-10 Foes This Weekend
October 17, 2018 | Men's Water Polo, Features
USC visits No. 8 Long Beach State on Saturday before hosting No. 6 Pepperdine on Sunday at Uytengsu.
THIS WEEK
The No. 1 Trojans face two top-10 nonconference opponents this weekend. USC (22-1) visits No. 8 Long Beach State (7-9) for a 1 p.m. matchup on Saturday (Oct. 20) before setting up to host No. 6 Pepperdine (11-8) at 1 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 21) at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
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RANKINGS
After wrapping the 2017 season at No. 2 in the land in reaching a 13th consecutive NCAA final, USC started its 2018 journey holding strong at No. 2 in the preseason national rankings. After one week of work, the Trojans bumped up into a tie at No. 1 in the nation. In week two, USC took sole possession of the top spot, and the Trojans remained at No. 1 until an Oct. 6 loss at Stanford moved USC to No. 3 on Oct. 10. That relegation lasted just one week, however, as USC avenged that loss with a win over the Cardinal in the Mountain Pacific Invitational championship on Oct. 14. So, as of Oct. 17, USC has risen back to No. 1 in the land.
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SCOUTING LONG BEACH STATE
The No. 8 49ers are 7-9 overall after going 1-3 at the Mountain Pacific Invitational last week. LBSU beat UC Davis 13-12 before falling 14-8 to USC, 11-9 to UC Santa Barbara and 10-9 to Pacific. Austin Stewart leads the 49ers in scoring with 33 goals, and goalie Marwan Darwish is averaging 10.4 saves and 13.6 goals against per game. USC is 70-15 all-time against LBSU with wins in the past 31 meetings after a 14-8 last week during group play at the MPI. Last season, USC beat the 49ers 11-9 in overtime when the teams met at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.Â
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SCOUTING PEPPERDINE
The No. 6 Waves enter the week 11-8 overall after a sixth-place finish at the Mountain Pacific Invitational last week. Pepperdine beat UC San Diego 10-9, lost to UCLA 10-0, beat Pacific 13-9 and lost 10-6 to UC Santa Barbara. Chris Dilworth leads Pepperdine in scoring with 43 goals, and goalie John Claude Marco is averaging 11.3 saves and 12.1 goals against per game. USC is 64-19-2 all-time against the Waves with wins in the past 18 meetings after an 11-5 victory when the teams met last season in Malibu.
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LAST ACTION
USC made a power move at the Mountain Pacific Invitational last week, tacking up three decisive wins to reach the championship match against host No. 1 Stanford. That clash was a down-to-the-wire affair. USC led by as many as four goals before Stanford leveled it in the final minute. USC's Jacob Mercep delivered the winner with five seconds to go, setting up the Trojan defense for one final stop to preserve a 10-9 victory that avenged a loss taken the previous weekend to Stanford. USC made an early statement when freshman goalie Nic Porter stuffed a Stanford 5-meter penalty shot attempt. The Trojan offense then ripped in back-to-back goals — Hannes Daube's first of a four-goal outing for the freshman, and a counterattack blast from senior Zach D'Sa — for a 2-0 advantage. Stanford closed back in and got it tangled up at 2-2 next, but USC kicked back into gear when Danny Leong zipped in a laser for a 3-2 lead by the end of the first. That Leong goal lit the fuse on a four-goal scoring blitz from the Trojans. In the second, Daube delivered again, followed by a rocket from Marko Vavic. Daube, again, drummed up a ripper, and USC was up 6-2 on the Cardinal. Stanford snapped the run with a goal next, but USC fired off another to go up 7-3 on a nearside finish from Marin Dasic. Stanford got one more to go before the break, and USC gripped a 7-4 advantage at halftime. After Mercep got on the scoresheet with a skipper to get USC up 8-4, the hosts were able to carve down the deficit with back-to-back goals next, and it was 8-6 entering the fourth period. But Daube wasn't done. The freshman zipped in a score from the top to make it 9-6 USC early in the fourth. Stanford mustered up two more to cut the margin to one, then called timeout in the final minute to set things up. The equalizer would come for the hosts on a score with 22 seconds left. The Trojans called their final timeout next, and with numerous options it would be Mercep in position to take the chance. He'd wind up and fire to the far corner, finding the back of the net to nudge USC ahead 10-9 with five seconds remaining in regulation. The Trojan defense came up with one final takeaway next, and the buzzer sounded on a big USC victory over top-ranked Stanford. In the lead-up to the title match, USC beat Air Force 20-6 and No. 9 Long Beach State 14-8 in group play to advance to the semifinals. There, the Trojans topped No. 4 California 13-6 behind a five-goal outburst from Mercep. Also the provider of the game-winner vs. the Cardinal, Jacob Mercep would become USC's first MPSF Player of the Week of the season, while goalie Nic Porter hauled in his second selection as the MPSF Newcomer of the Week after making 29 saves in three appearances, while making two 5-meter penalty saves.
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WEEKLY WARRIORS
USC's freshman class has made its presence known in these early goings of 2018, with three different Trojans claiming the last six MPSF Newcomer of the Week awards. Hannes Daube picked up his first award as a Trojan on Sept. 10  after he scored 12 goals and had 11 assists and seven steals across five USC wins in the second week of action. The very next week, goalie Sam Krutonog was named MPSF Newcomer of the Week on Sept. 17 after setting an early career high for himself with 10 saves in a complete game's work during top-ranked USC's 10-3 win over No. 7 UC Santa Barbara. Next, yet another USC freshman had a career day that earned MPSF Newcomer of the Week accolades. On Sept. 24, goalie Nic Porter got the nod after making 14 saves in a full game's work during an 11-8 win over No. 6 Pacific. Next, Daube went back-to-back to make it five in a row for the Trojan newcomers with his awards on Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 following a four-goal outburst along with two assists and a steal in USC's 16-3 win over No. 5 UC Santa Barbara and then a career-high six goals in a tough 13-11 loss at Stanford in which Daube scored the last four goals of the game for USC. Most recently, Porter gathered in his second selection on Oct. 15 after making 29 saves in three appearances, including two 5-meter penalty stops, in USC's run to the Mountain Pacific Invitational championship. At the same time, sophomore Jacob Mercep claimed USC's first MPSF Player of the Week award after dishing out 10 goals at the event, including five to beat Cal and the game-winner vs. Stanford.
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BY THE NUMBERS
Now 23 games into the season, top-ranked USC continues to exhibit great depth and balance. The Trojans have outscored opponents 394-115, and are leading the MPSF offensively and defensively with 17.13 goals scored per game and just 5.0 goals-against per game. Leading the offensive charge so far are sophomores Marko Vavic with 45 goals and Jacob Mercep with 44. Freshman Hannes Daube is next with 40, followed by junior Matt Maier with 32 and then six other Trojans in the 20-goal zone. On the defensive end, USC has utilized four goalies, with freshman Nic Porter in the lead in averaging 10.06 saves per game in his 11 appearances. Just behind Porter on the saves chart is freshman Sam Krutonog with 8.83 saves per game in nine appearances and sophomore transfer Vaios Vlahotasios with 8.8 saves per game in eight appearances. Redshirt freshman Matt Moran-Flores has made 21 in five appearances in the cage. In all, USC has had 18 Trojans score goals to date, with seven USC newcomers in that mix. USC set a season high with 16 different scorers in USC's Sept. 28 win over La Verne. In addition to a complete-game shutout of Redlands on Sept. 29, USC has registered 27 shutout periods to date.
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GOOD TO GREAT
Sophomore Marko Vavic enters the week just four goals away from joining the 100-win club as a Trojan. After scoring 51 goals as a freshman, Vavic is up to 45 in 2018 as he makes moves on climbing the career charts at USC. Another handful of Trojan returners have already upped their previous season-best scoring to date. Junior Matt Maier (32 goals) and senior Zach D'Sa (28) have bettered their sophomore-season mark of 26 goals, while redshirt junior Danny Leong (27) has bested last year's 23 goals. So, too, have redshirt sophomores Luke Wyatt (20 goals) and Luka Karaman (12) have majorly upped their 2017 totals of 2 and 1 goals, respectively.
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10 IN TWENTY?
As USC water polo prepares to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the program's first national championship, the 2018 Trojans are looking to add a 10th NCAA title to the storied program's collection of championship trophies. Under the guidance of head coach Jovan Vavic, who has been on-hand for all nine of the USC men's NCAA titles and all six of the USC women's national championships, the Trojan men are riding an unprecedented streak of 13 consecutive NCAA finals reached as they kick off this 2018 campaign.
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ATTACKING BACK
Leading the charge for the Trojans is an arsenal of offensive firepower that is, in a word, daunting. USC's five returning members of the 2017 NCAA roster — Zach D'Sa, Marin Dasic and Sam Slobodien, two-time All-American Matt Maier and All-American and 2017 top scorer Marko Vavic — combined for 158 goals, which was 35 percent of USC's total scoring output on the year. But wait, there's more. For this 2018 campaign, USC has added in two high-powered transfers that help balloon that tally to 274. Last season as a true freshman at San José State, Jacob Mercep whipped up 93 goals and earned All-American honors. Sawyer Rhodes delivered 23 while at Stanford before both he and Mercep changed course to Troy.
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CAGE FIGHTERS
After Cutino Award winner and Olympian McQuin Baron manned the cage almost single-handedly for the past four seasons, the Trojans are loaded up with goalies this year. Having five capable goalies in the mix lifts the level of competition in practice and forces the USC shooters to continually recalibrate their strategies for hitting the back of the net. As the season openers quickly approach, Vavic has his eyes on Australian Nic Porter and local product Sam Krutonog as his frontrunners. But he's been impressed, too, with the abilities of Matt Moran-Flores, Paul Matt and Vaios Vlahotasios. Porter is the third Australian goalie to cap up in the cage for the Trojans, following Olympians Joel Dennerley and James Clark. Dennerley won four NCAA championships at USC (2008-2011) before giving way to Clark for two seasons. Clark, too, anchored the Trojans to NCAA crowns both years he was at USC (2012 & 2013).
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FIFTEEN FRESH FACES
USC's goalkeeping corps boasts four newcomers, who comprise just a corner of the 15-man class of incoming Trojans for 2018. Transfers Jacob Mercep and Sawyer Rhodes offer an instant dose of experience, but this new crew most certainly contains a number of impact freshmen as well. Most notably, USC gets a sizable boost from U.S. National Team members Hannes Daube and Jake Ehrhardt. Looming at 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-6, respectively, Daube and Ehrhardt are a double dose of danger for opposing teams. Add to that the even more international experience from Greece's Orestis Apergi and Aussies Corey Allan and James Kolenda, and the Trojan depth charge becomes even more apparent. Further, the Trojan freshman talent pool grows ever deeper with the addition of California products Mason Farley, Alexander Lansill and Bennett Winther. Goalie Paul Matt, Allan, Farley and Winther will redshirt this season, leaving 11 active newcomers. That means exactly half of USC's 2018 active roster is making Trojan debuts this year.
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OPENING WEEKEND
USC exploded out of the gates of the 2018 season in nabbing two commanding victories in the Trojans' first official action of the season last weekend. Out at the UCLA Mini Invitational, USC pinned up a 16-1 win over No. 17 Pomona-Pitzer in the morning before delivering a 25-4 victory over Whittier. In building out a 2-0 start to the year, 12 players registered their first stats as Trojans. Six newcomers scored their first career goals, and four goalies notched their first career saves capped up as Trojans. In the opener, senior captain Zach D'Sa opened the Trojans' account, lighting the fuse on an 11-0 scoring rally in the first half by USC against No. 17 Pomona-Pitzer. During that surge, newcomers Hannes Daube, Jacob Mercep and Orestis Apergi punched up their first goals as Trojans while freshman goalie Sam Krutonog had an eight-save haul in his USC debut during the first half. In the second half, redshirt freshman goalie Matt Moran-Flores checked in for his first official minutes in the cage, backing up a stingy USC defense that allowed just a single Sagehen score down the stretch. Meanwhile, two more USC newcomers — Jake Ehrhardt and James Kolenda — pumped in their first USC goals to help the Trojans along to a final 16-1 victory. Mercep's hat trick had him as the scoring leader for the Trojans in this one, leading a pack of 10 USC scorers. Hours later, the Trojans were right back to it, taking on Whittier for game two of the season. This one saw another pair of new USC goalies share time in the cage, with freshman Nic Porter getting the start and transfer Vaios Vlahotasios coming in for the second half of action. Porter would pick up three saves, and Vlahotasios tallied six in his first 16 minutes of work as a Trojan. On the offensive end, relative veterans Marin Dasic and Daniel Leong led the charge with four goals apiece, topping a group of 12 Trojans to get to the back of the net in the 25-4 win. Along the way, freshman Alexander Lansill knocked in his first USC goal, becoming the sixth Trojan newcomer to score on the day.
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LAST SEASON
Last year, the USC men finished 27-4 overall, winning the 2017 MPSF Tournament and reaching the NCAA final for the 13th straight year. That USC roster would see six 2017 All-Americans play their final seasons, including senior first-teamers McQuin Baron and Lachlan Edwards. USC had two underclassmen earn All-America status last year, with freshman Marko Vavic picking up a second team selection and sophomore Matt Maier earning honorable mention. •
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