University Southern California Trojans
No. 2 USC Ready To Tackle NorCal Tourney
October 12, 2005 | Men's Water Polo
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THIS WEEK: The No. 2 Trojans head to the Bay Area this weekend to play in the Northern California Touranemnt hosted by No. 3 California. USC opens the tourney against Santa Clara at 8 a.m. on Saturday (Oct. 15) at Miramonte High School in Orinda, Calif. Also in USC's bracket are UC Irvine and Pacific.
RANKINGS: USC (9-1) stayed at No. 2 in the national rankings this week. Santa Clara is ranked No. 18 in the latest poll. UC Irvine is No. 6, and Pacific is No. 9.
WEEKEND RECAP: The Trojans got back to its winning ways last week with their first home games of the season. First up at McDonald's Swim Stadium was LMU, which USC dispatched 9-4 after building up a 6-0 lead. Juraj Zatovic notched his sixth multiple-goal game in the win with three goals for the Trojans. The following day against Brown, USC tore out to an 8-0 lead before the Bears were able to get on the board. Leading scorer Tommy Corcoran punched in three goals from two meters in the first half to help spark the Trojans to an eventual 11-2 win over Brown.
NORCAL TOURNEY PREVIEW: The Northern California Tournament brings in 16 teams from around the country for a heated early look at the competition still to come on the season. No. 3 California is playing host to the tournament, which will be held both at Berkeley's Spieker Aquatics Complex and nearby Miramonte High School in Orinda. Fifteen of the 16 attending teams are ranked in the nation's top 20, and USC is bracketed with No. 6 UC Irvine, No. 9 Pacific and No. 18 Santa Clara. The Trojans open against Santa Clara, with the winner of that game facing the UC Irvine-Pacific winner on Saturday afternoon. Semifinals are set for 10:20 and 11:30 a.m. in Berkeley, and the championship game is at 4:10 p.m. Last season, USC faced UCLA in the semifinals and fell 8-6 to the Bruins to move into the third-place game against Cal. In a high-scoring battle, the Trojans won out with a 14-10 decision over the Bears to claim third place. In the 2004 championship game, UCLA edged Stanford 10-9 in overtime.
SPRINT SPECIALIST: Junior utility Pavol Valovic has yet to lose a starting sprint for the Trojans. The speedster has taken the majority of USC's opening sprints, and has come out ahead on every one. In the SoCal Tournament championship game against Stanford on Sept. 18, Valovic was a perfect 4-for-4 off the lane line. He did the same against Pepperdine, and went 3-for-3 against LMU last week.
MASS PRODUCTION: The Trojans' overall offensive production and defensive control have become glaringly apparant. On the attacking end of the pool, USC is averaging 9.5 goals per game, while allowing a mere 4.4 per game. The Trojan defense has not allowed more than five goals in the past seven games.
LEAPFROG: After four more goals last weekend, Juraj Zatovic jacked up his career scoring numbers to 177 to place him just two goals shy of tying for the No. 2 spot on the USC all-time charts. If Zatovic can muster up 13 more goals before season's end, he'll be in the history books for the top mark in USC history.
CAGE FIGHTERS: The red-capped tandem of sophomore Adam Shilling and junior Don Ricci has proven a potent one-two punch for the Trojans. Together, they have 63 saves, and in the SoCal Tournament title game on Sept. 18, the pair shared in the championship effort. When Shilling was ejected in the second quarter, Ricci was able to sub in and make the stop on the Cardinal 6-on-5 attack. Shilling stepped back in at the half, and anchored the Trojans the rest of the way to the win. Last weekend, junior goalir Justin McCain stepped in for his first time in the cage this season and tallied four saves against Brown.
SHUTTING IT DOWN: When junior goalie Don Ricci took to the cage on Sept. 24 against Occidental, he also took hold of a piece of Trojan history by helping anchor USC to its first shutout victory since a 12-0 win over Cal State Los Angeles in 1988. Ricci posted four saves in the win, a testament to the powerful Trojan defense in field.
HOME POOL ADVANTAGE: After battling through regular-season competition, USC will play host to the crucial MPSF tournament (Nov. 25-27), where conference teams will vie for the championship title and an automatic bid into the eight-team NCAA Tournament. All the action is set to go down at McDonald's Swim Stadium.
VAVIC ON DECK: Head coach Jovan Vavic, one of the top water polo coaches in the country, serves a dual role as the head coach of both the USC men's and women's teams and has led both to national championships twice in the same school year (the men in 1998 and 2003 and the women in 1999 and 2004). As he begins his 11th season at the helm of the men's program, Vavic has a 213-51 (.807) record on the men's side after leading the 2004 Trojan squad to a third-place finish in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and a 22-5 overall mark. He also boasts a winning record against all opponents on the men's side of the game. Vavic pulled a coaching double sweep when he was named 2003 National Coach of the Year and MPSF Coach of the Year for the men and 2004 National Coach of the Year and MPSF Coach of the Year for the women. The 2004 women's team became the first team in NCAA Championship history to go undefeated (29-0) during the regular season.
