No. 3 USC Men's Water Polo Tops No. 13 Tigers in Home Water

Tuesday, October 14

Los Angeles, Calif.

5:00 p.m.

USC

14-2

Princeton

14-7

Princeton

USC (M)

Photo by: John McGillen

No. 3 USC Men's Water Polo Tops No. 13 Tigers in Home Water

October 14, 2025 | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

The Trojans collected a 15-13 win over Princeton behind a four-goal performance from Strahinja Krstic

LOS ANGELES – The third-ranked USC men's water polo team (14-2) collected a 15-13 win over No. 13 Princeton (14-7) under the lights at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Tuesday, Oct. 14.

Redshirt sophomore Charles Mills faced 31 Princeton shots and racked up 12 saves in the win. It was his sixth game with double-digit saves and marked the eighth of his career.

Freshman Strahinja Krstic led the Trojan offense with four goals on seven shots while junior Robert López Duart and freshman Efe Naipoglu each registered hat tricks with three goals apiece. Junior Stefan Brankovic had two goals and an assist and redshirt senior Jack Martin scored a pair of goals to round out a quintet of Trojans with multiple goals. Senior Mihailo Vukazić scored one goal to join López Duart with a goal scored in all 16 of USC's games. For López Duart, it was his team-leading 11th game with multiple goals; the ninth for Krstic, the eighth for Martin, and the third for Naipoglu.

The Tigers' Finn LeSieur racked the first two goals of the game and Princeton held a 3-2 lead at the end of the first quarter. Brankovic and Krstic had the two Trojan goals. The Tigers went up by two goals to open the second quarter, but Krstic's second goal of the game spurred USC to a four-goal frame with back-to-back goals by Naipoglu to give the Trojans a 6-4 lead. Princeton scored one more with just five seconds to play and enter the half down a goal, 6-5.

USC exploded for six goals in the third and led by as many as four at 12-8 but the Tigers floated one over Mills with one second to play to bring Princeton within three entering the fourth, 12-9. Krstic and Naipoglu each had goals to log hat tricks during the Trojans' third-quarter outburst. Vukazić scored on a 6-on-5 opportunity to put the Trojans in front by five, 15-10, but the Tigers clawed back to pull within two with 4:10 to play. The teams went back and forth but swam to a 15-13 final.

UP NEXT
USC resumes conference play at Spieker Aquatics Center with a game against top-ranked crosstown rival UCLA (18-0, 2-0 MPSF) on Saturday (Oct. 18) at 1 p.m. PT. The Trojans and Bruins meet for the first of two regular-season games and will be shown live ona stream through overnght.com.