Seven Trojans Earn All-MPSF Men’s Water Polo Accolades

USC men's water polo has stacked up five repeat honorees and two new faces on the 2024 MPSF honor roll, making it a total of seven Trojans earning places on All-MPSF West teams for their work this season. Leading the pack on the All-MPSF First Team are USC's top scorers, Robert López Duart and Max Miller. Scoring spots on the All-MPSF Second Team are Andrej Grgurevic and Bernardo Herzer, while a trio of Trojans have secured All-MPSF Honorable Mention in Stefan Brankovic, Luka Brnetic and Carson Kranz.

Senior Carson Kranz has been an All-MPSF honoree for five years now, with this year marking his fourth All-MPSF Honorable Mention. Fellow senior captain Max Miller also has put in five seasons of work, as he now claims back-to-back All-MPSF First Team honors. Luka Brnetic, meanwhile, has been an All-MPSF selection the past three seasons, with this being his second Honorable Mention award. Andrej Grgurevic and Bernardo Herzer have now gathered their second All-MPSF picks, while Stefan Brankovic and Robert López Duart have earned All-MPSF accolades in their first seasons of competition as Trojans.

In his first season of action as a Trojan, Robert López Duart locked up his All-MPSF First Team honors as USC's top scorer so far this season with 45 goals, while also registering 25 steals and 24 assists. Also on the Cutino Award Watch List, López Duart is a four-time MPSF Newcomer of the Week winner. He's scored in 19 games for USC this season, with a team-high 14 multiple-goal games. He has topped out with a five-goal outburst in a USC win over Stanford earlier this year.

A captain, Max Miller has pocketed his second straight selection to the All-MPSF First Team thanks in part to having scored in 21 of USC's 23 games this year. With 41 goals on the season, he's USC's second leading scorer, and he's been a force at two-meters with 45 exclusions drawn to date. Also on the Cutino Award Watch List, Miller was named MPSF Player of the Week this season.

Junior Andrej Grgurevic has upgraded last year's Honorable Mention with his place on this season's All-MPSF Second Team. He's third on USC's scoring list this year with 28 goals, and he's scored in 19 different games while topping out with a hat trick vs. Princeton. He's joined by two-time All-MPSF Second Team selection Bernardo Herzer — USC's go-to goalie who is averaging 8.9 saves per game and who has nabbed a team-high 30 steals. He also scored his first career goal earlier this season, and he set a new career high in single-game saves with 16 in USC's win over Stanford.

Looming largest on the All-MPSF Honorable Mention list is senior Luka Brnetic, who now has his second Honorable Mention pick to go with Second Team honors earned in 2023. USC's leader in field blocks, Brnetic also has delivered 18 goals on the offensive end this season, including a career-high hat trick vs. UC Santa Barbara. Now a four-time All-MPSF Honorable Mention recipient to go along with First Team honors last year, captain Carson Kranz has tallied 24 goals, 22 assists and 20 steals for the Trojans this season. He was named MPSF Player of the Week earlier this month. In his first season of competition as a Trojan, Stefan Brankovic is a team captain alongside Kranz and Miller. Now with All-MPSF Honorable Mention accolades to his name, Brankovic was named MPSF Newcomer of the Week last week. He leads the team in assists with 26, and he's also punched up 26 goals, striking in 18 different games so far this season.

Next up for the Trojans is the MPSF Tournament, which runs Nov. 22-24 at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center in Westwood, Calif., where USC will be looking to win a third consecutive conference tournament title.

2024 MPSF West Awards

All-MPSF First Team
Robert López Duart
Max Miller

All-MPSF Second Team
Andrej Grgurevic
Bernardo Herzer

All-MPSF Honorable Mention
Stefan Brankovic
Luka Brnetic
Carson Kranz

Players Mentioned

Stefan Brankovic

Luka Brnetic

Andrej Grgurevic

Bernardo Herzer

Carson Kranz

Max Miller