Saturday, November 16
Berkeley, Calif.
1:00 PM
USC
14
at
13
California
Players Mentioned
DR
/ Men's Water Polo
DR
/ Men's Water Polo
2M
/ Men's Water Polo
UT
/ Men's Water Polo
2M
/ Men's Water Polo
DR
/ Men's Water Polo
G
/ Men's Water Polo
2M
/ Men's Water Polo
DR
/ Men's Water Polo
DR
/ Men's Water Polo
Photo by: Katie Chin
No. 1 USC Captures 14-13 Win At No. 7 Cal
November 16, 2019 | Men's Water Polo, Features
Hannes Daube nails four goals and Jake Ehrhardt scores three to help USC to victory in Berkeley.
BERKELEY, CALIF. — The No. 1 USC men's water polo team gutted out a wild win in Berkeley, leading by as many as four goals in the first half but falling behind midway through the fourth period. After taking losses in Bear Territory in the past four visits to Berkeley, the top-ranked Trojans were ready to break the cycle. In the last 2:30 of play, USC saw senior Matt Maier equalize on a counterattack strike, and then sophomore Jake Ehrhardt reared up and hammered home what would stand as the winner with 25 ticks to go, giving USC a 14-13 win over No. 7 host California today at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The win gives the Trojans a four-game win streak entering the coming MPSF Tournament, where USC (13-4) grips the top seed for the tourney — which will take place back in Berkeley next weekend.
Junior Jacob Mercep followed an early zinger from Hannes Daube with a blast that netted a 2-0 USC lead early. It also tallied Mercep's 100th career goal as a Trojan — completed in under two seasons of work. With Ehrhardt and Maier clicking of Trojan goals as well in the first, USC was up 4-1 after eight minutes of action. In the second frame, though, USC would see its two leading scorers sidelined by the referee's whistles. Marin Dasic and a Cal player were both ejected from the game early in the second. Mercep would get tagged with his third exclusion two minutes later. And yet, still, the Trojans were able to pile on three more big goals in the frame. Before his third kickout, Mercep set up Daube for a power play finish that got USC up 5-2. The Bears would find their scoring touch, but USC's Luke Wyatt was there to fire right back. He'd rip in USC's last two goals of the half, with a sizzling cross cage bar-in blast that boosted USC to its largest lead, up 7-3. Cal countered back with a strike before halftime, and it was a 7-4 USC lead at the break.
Things ratcheted up in the second half as Cal began to chip away at USC's advantage. Daube delivered his third of the day to make it 8-5, but the Bears managed back-to-back scores to trim the lead down to one. Ehrhardt would find the hot-handed Daube for a 6-on-5 ripper that got USC up 9-7 with 4:03 on the clock, only to see Cal net two more goals to bring up the first tie since the opening whistle. With it snarled at 9-9 in the final minute of the third, Sam Slobodien's hard work at set garnered another USC 6-on-5 chance. Freshman Chris Sturtevant would fake and fire, and USC was back on top 10-9 with the fourth quarter up next.
Cal would sneak into its first lead of the game with two goals in the first two minutes of the fourth, but the Trojans rose to the challenge and got a booming equalizer from Slobodien at two-meters. Ehrhardt unleashed a perfect lob not a minute later, and USC was back on top, up 12-11 with 4:16 to go. Again, the hosts had a response. The Bears found two more goals in under a minute, and USC was in a one-goal hole with 3:13 on the clock. That's when Daube would feed Maier on a counter, with the captain going one-on-one with the Cal goalie and slicing it through to snarl it up at 13-13. Two more USC exclusions gave Cal a good opportunity to go up again, but Ehrhardt was there for a shut-down field block. Luka Karaman and Slobodien would combine forces on another key defensive takeaway by the Trojans, leading Wyatt to feed Ehrhardt for a rise-up rocket that lifted USC to a 14-13 advantage with 25 seconds left in regulation. Any Cal hopes of OT were dashed by an errant shot in the final stretch, and USC emerged victorious in Berkeley.
As the top seed in the MPSF Tournament, USC has a ticket to an 11 a.m. semifinal on Saturday (Nov. 23) in Berkeley. The Trojans will face either Cal, Austin College or Penn State Behrend in that semifinal as USC trains its focus on capturing a 12th MPSF Tournament title to secure an automatic berth into the 2019 NCAA Championships.
#1 USC 14, #7 California 13
November 16, 2019 | Spieker Aquatics Complex (Berkeley, Calif.)
USC 4 - 3 - 3 - 4 = 14
CAL 1 - 3 - 5 - 4 = 13
SCORING:
USC — Hannes Daube 4, Jake Ehrhardt 3, Matt Maier 2, Luke Wyatt 2, Jacob Mercep, Chris Sturtevant, Sam Slobodien.
CAL — Nikolaos Papanikolaou 3, Jordan Hoover 3, Miles O'Brien-Schridde 2, Jake Stone 2, Jake Deely, Safak Simsek, Marko Melecic.
SAVES: Nic Porter (USC) 10, Adrian Weinberg (CAL) 11.
Big win in Berkeley! Trojans are undisputed top seeds for next week's @MPSFMensWP tourney!#FightOn ✌️ pic.twitter.com/v57eKbbpZe
— USC Water Polo (@USCWaterPolo) November 17, 2019
Junior Jacob Mercep followed an early zinger from Hannes Daube with a blast that netted a 2-0 USC lead early. It also tallied Mercep's 100th career goal as a Trojan — completed in under two seasons of work. With Ehrhardt and Maier clicking of Trojan goals as well in the first, USC was up 4-1 after eight minutes of action. In the second frame, though, USC would see its two leading scorers sidelined by the referee's whistles. Marin Dasic and a Cal player were both ejected from the game early in the second. Mercep would get tagged with his third exclusion two minutes later. And yet, still, the Trojans were able to pile on three more big goals in the frame. Before his third kickout, Mercep set up Daube for a power play finish that got USC up 5-2. The Bears would find their scoring touch, but USC's Luke Wyatt was there to fire right back. He'd rip in USC's last two goals of the half, with a sizzling cross cage bar-in blast that boosted USC to its largest lead, up 7-3. Cal countered back with a strike before halftime, and it was a 7-4 USC lead at the break.
Things ratcheted up in the second half as Cal began to chip away at USC's advantage. Daube delivered his third of the day to make it 8-5, but the Bears managed back-to-back scores to trim the lead down to one. Ehrhardt would find the hot-handed Daube for a 6-on-5 ripper that got USC up 9-7 with 4:03 on the clock, only to see Cal net two more goals to bring up the first tie since the opening whistle. With it snarled at 9-9 in the final minute of the third, Sam Slobodien's hard work at set garnered another USC 6-on-5 chance. Freshman Chris Sturtevant would fake and fire, and USC was back on top 10-9 with the fourth quarter up next.
Cal would sneak into its first lead of the game with two goals in the first two minutes of the fourth, but the Trojans rose to the challenge and got a booming equalizer from Slobodien at two-meters. Ehrhardt unleashed a perfect lob not a minute later, and USC was back on top, up 12-11 with 4:16 to go. Again, the hosts had a response. The Bears found two more goals in under a minute, and USC was in a one-goal hole with 3:13 on the clock. That's when Daube would feed Maier on a counter, with the captain going one-on-one with the Cal goalie and slicing it through to snarl it up at 13-13. Two more USC exclusions gave Cal a good opportunity to go up again, but Ehrhardt was there for a shut-down field block. Luka Karaman and Slobodien would combine forces on another key defensive takeaway by the Trojans, leading Wyatt to feed Ehrhardt for a rise-up rocket that lifted USC to a 14-13 advantage with 25 seconds left in regulation. Any Cal hopes of OT were dashed by an errant shot in the final stretch, and USC emerged victorious in Berkeley.
As the top seed in the MPSF Tournament, USC has a ticket to an 11 a.m. semifinal on Saturday (Nov. 23) in Berkeley. The Trojans will face either Cal, Austin College or Penn State Behrend in that semifinal as USC trains its focus on capturing a 12th MPSF Tournament title to secure an automatic berth into the 2019 NCAA Championships.
#1 USC 14, #7 California 13
November 16, 2019 | Spieker Aquatics Complex (Berkeley, Calif.)
USC 4 - 3 - 3 - 4 = 14
CAL 1 - 3 - 5 - 4 = 13
SCORING:
USC — Hannes Daube 4, Jake Ehrhardt 3, Matt Maier 2, Luke Wyatt 2, Jacob Mercep, Chris Sturtevant, Sam Slobodien.
CAL — Nikolaos Papanikolaou 3, Jordan Hoover 3, Miles O'Brien-Schridde 2, Jake Stone 2, Jake Deely, Safak Simsek, Marko Melecic.
SAVES: Nic Porter (USC) 10, Adrian Weinberg (CAL) 11.
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