USC Travels To Stanford For 2003 NCAA Championship
December 01, 2003 | Men's Water Polo
Dec. 1, 2003
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LOS ANGELES - The No. 1 USC men's water polo team (22-3) will compete at the 2003 NCAA Championship this weekend at Stanford. The Trojans, the regular season tri-champions of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with a 7-1 mark, earned the top seed after winning the MPSF Tournament at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach last week with an 8-6 win against Stanford. USC will face No. 4-seed Navy (25-6) on Saturday (Dec. 6) at 6 p.m. If the Trojans win, they would face the winner of the Stanford-Loyola Marymount match for the national championship on Sunday (Dec. 7) at 5 p.m. The losers of the semifinal matches will play in the third-place match at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
USC IN THE POSTSEASON - USC is making its 19th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Trojans won the 1998 national championship, the first in school history, and have been the runner-up six times (1983, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997). USC last played in NCAA Tournament in 2000, finishing in third place with a 15-9 win against Navy. USC is 8-0 all-time against Navy, 29-52 against Stanford and 6-0 against Loyola Marymount.
Jovan Vavic - In his ninth season as the head coach of the men's water polo program, Jovan Vavic has built the Trojans into a national power, which culminated with the 1998 national championship. Vavic came to USC as an assistant men's water polo coach to John Williams in 1992 and was named co-head coach in 1995. He took over the reins as head coach in 1999 when Williams retired. Vavic is also the head coach for the USC women's water polo team. During the 1998-99 season, Vavic did something no other coach has accomplished as his teams won three national championships: besides capturing the 1998 men's and 1999 women's titles, his 1999 men's club team won the Men's Senior National Club Championship.
VAVIC'S CAREER RECORD - Jovan Vavic has a 189-46 (.804) record with the Trojans in his ninth season.
Juraj Zatovic - Sophomore two-meter defender Juraj Zatovic (Bratislava, Slovakia) led the Trojans in scoring last year with 49 goals, earning All-America third team honors, and this season is making a push for National Player of the Year honors. He leads the team this season with 54 goals. Zatovic scored 11 goals in four matches at the So-Cal Tournament in Irvine, Calif., including the game-winners against UC Irvine and Long Beach State. He scored a team-high four goals on Sept. 21 in a 9-7 win against No. 4 Pepperdine in the championship semifinal and started the season by recording back-to-back hat tricks on Sept. 13 and 14 against UC San Diego and UC Irvine.
Gadi Hadar - Senior driver Gadi Hadar (Kibutz-Givat-Haim-Icud, Israel) returns for his third season with the Trojans and is third on the team in scoring with 35 goals. Hadar scored 11 goals in four matches as the Trojans won the So-Cal Tournament title. He scored a team-high four goals in the championship match against co-No.1 Stanford on Sept. 21 and registered the sudden-victory overtime game-winner for the 10-9 win against the Cardinal. He was second on the team last year in scoring with 38 goals.
Predrag Damjanov - Senior two-meter Predrag Damjanov (Belgrade, Yugoslavia) earned All-America second team honors last season after garnering All-America honorable mention honors in his first two seasons. Damjanov finished third on the team last season in scoring with 33 goals and has 120 in his Trojan career (27 goals this season).
Bozidar Damjanovic - Senior goalie Bozidar Damjanovic (Belgrade, Yugoslavia) earned All-MPSF honorable mention honors after recording 200 saves in 28 matches last season. In the season opener on Sept. 13 against No. 6 UC San Diego, he made 10 saves and did not allow a goal in the second half. He currently has 172 saves in 24 matches. Damjanovic has been a four-year starter for the Trojans.
JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM - USC has three players who played this summer with the United States Junior National Team. Junior utility James Shin (Long Beach) scored a career-high 14 goals last year for the Trojans while freshmen Thomas Hale (Long Beach/Wilson HS) and Trevor Clark (Huntington Beach/Servite HS) made their collegiate debuts on Sept. 13. Hale was the CIF Division I Player of the Year last year while Clark was the CIF Division II Player of the Year. Shin is second on the team with 43 goals on the season while Hale is fifth with 23 goals. Hale scored a team-high five goals on Sept. 28 in a 15-3 win at No. 13 Pacific. Clark scored seven goals in back-to-back matches with three on Nov. 1 against No. 7 Long Beach State and four on Nov. 2 against No. 8 UC Irvine.
WATER POLO SCHOOL - USC's women's water polo team adds a 1-2 punch in the pool. The Women of Troy won the 1999 national championship and have registered a 133-23 record in the last five seasons.
