USC Dives Into NCAA Hunt For 2010 Championship
May 10, 2010 | Women's Water Polo
May 10, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
THIS WEEK
Undefeated on neutral ground this year, the USC women's water polo team is bound for its seventh straight NCAA Championship appearance with the No. 2 seed in-hand for the 2010 action. Owners of two national titles, the Women of Troy last won the NCAA crown in 2004. This year, USC holds a 22-3 overall record as it sets up for the latest push to a national championship. The 2010 NCAA Championships will be held May 14-16 at San Diego State's Aztec Aquaplex. USC opens its 2010 NCAA campaign with a matchup against No. 7 seed Marist at 12:30 p.m. on Friday (May 14) in San Diego. A win there would put the Trojans up against the winner of that afternoon's game between No. 3 UCLA and No. 6 Loyola Marymount. That semifinal will be held Saturday (May 15) at 5:45 p.m., and the NCAA Championship game is set for 5 p.m. on Sunday (May 16) following a 3:15 p.m. third-place match.
FOLLOW ALONG
To keep up with all the NCAA action in San Diego this week, visit TOURNAMENT CENTRAL for scores, schedule and live scoring updates. The championship game on Sunday (May 16) will be televised live by CBS College Sports Network.
IN THE RANKINGS
USC and Stanford have traded the No. 1 slot in the national rankings this season. The Cardinal held the top spot for the first five weeks of the year until the Trojans took over on March 3 for seven weeks. After a week out of the top slot, USC is back at No. 1, tied in that position with UCLA.
BY THE NUMBERS
USC enters the week with Joelle Bekhazi as its scoring leader with 50 goals to date. Freshman Patricia Jancso is next with 37 followed by senior Kally Lucas -- who hit the century mark in career scoring on April 3 -- with 35 and Kami Craig at 34. Craig recently moved into the No. 8 all-time scoring slot in the Trojan history books, having passed up fellow Cutino Award winner and Olympian Lauren Wenger and fellow U.S. National Teamer Erika Figge this year before stepping into the No. 8 position and currently boasting 150 career goals. In the cage, goalie Tumua Anae leads the MPSF in saves per game with 10.0 spg, having posted double-digit saves in 14 of the past 16 games for the Trojans. She also stands as USC's all-time career saves leader on record with 694 to date. As a team, USC is No. 2 among MPSF teams in defense, allowing just 5.2 goals per game. Offensively, USC stands at No. 1 in the conference with 12.32 goals per game.
NCAA NOTES
USC has won two national championships in program history, with the first coming in 1999 before the NCAA sponsored women's water polo. In 2004, the Trojans posted the first-ever undefeated season on the way to capturing the 2004 NCAA title. USC has since finished third in 2005 and 2007 and placed second in 2006, 2008 and 2009. This year marks USC's seventh consecutive NCAA appearance and seventh overall, as the Trojans hold a 12-5 all-time record in NCAA tournament play.
BRACKET BREAKDOWN
No. 2 seed USC is one of eight teams lined up for postseason play in San Diego. The Trojans earned an at-large berth this season after taking second at the MPSF Championships last weekend. Receiving automatic bids into the 2010 tournament are five teams that clinched their NCAA tickets by winning conference championships. Defending NCAA champion and No. 3 seeded UCLA (20-7) is the MPSF's automatic qualifier along with four other conference champions: No. 5 seed Michigan (32-6, Collegiate Water Polo Association), No. 6 seed Loyola Marymount (27-4, Western Water Polo Association), No. 7 seed Marist (18-15, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) and No. 8 seed Pomona-Pitzer (18-14, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference). The rest of the field is comprised of at-large MPSF teams, with the No. 2 seeded Trojans (22-3) joined by No. 1 seed Stanford (24-2) and California (24-8) at No. 4.
TROJANS TO DATE
This year, USC has posted a powerful season to date in accumulating a 22-3 overall record. The Trojans' only losses this year were to top-seeded Stanford and to defending NCAA champion UCLA, but USC also boasts wins over both teams this season, making the coming NCAA competition a true battleground to determine the 2010 champion. This year, USC has gone undefeated at neutral sites, with the Trojans' only losses coming in two defeats at Stanford and one at UCLA's home pool.
THIS TIME LAST YEAR
USC carried a 14-game winning streak into the 2009 NCAA Championships after clinching the automatic seed to NCAAs with USC's first MPSF Championship since 2004 and second all-time in winning the 2009 title. The Trojans topped Cal Lutheran 22-2 in the first round and beat Hawai'i 17-5 in the semifinals. Meanwhile, UCLA surprised Stanford with a win in the other semifinal, putting USC against the Bruins for the championship. UCLA managed a 5-4 win over USC in the final. That left USC with a 26-2 overall record on the year.
MPSF RUNDOWN
USC took second place at the 2010 MPSF Championships after reaching the title match for the third straight season. The No. 2 seeded defending MPSF champs opened up with a powerful 15-5 win over San Diego State on the first day to earn a clash with No. 3 seed California in the semifinals. USC fought back from first-half deficit to claim a 9-7 win over the Bears to take a spot in the final. The Trojans met No. 4 seed UCLA in the title match after the Bruins served up a surprise upset of top-seeded Stanford in their semifinal. USC came out slow against UCLA and could not recover from an early hole, coming up short of a push for overtime to fall 8-7 in the championship match. Patricia Jancso had four goals for USC in the title match, while Alexandra Kiss led USC in scoring with back-to-back hat tricks in the first two games. Kami Craig also scored in all three games at the tourney, earning a place on the MPSF All-Tournament Team along with Jancso.
SENIOR CLASS
In their final game at McDonald's Swim Stadium, USC's senior class combined forces for another powerful win over crosstown rival No. 4 UCLA. A nine-goal scoring surge rolled the Trojans well out of reach of the visiting Bruins, as USC captured a 14-5 win over UCLA. Seniors Kami Craig, Alexandra Kiss and Kally Lucas combined for eight goals on the day, while Forel Davies was perfect on opening sprints and goalie Tumua Anae turned away 14 Bruin shots in the win. The Trojans and the Bruins stayed close in the first frame before USC busted loose with nine straight goals thanks to a cool 7-0 shutout in the second period of play. The victory was USC's 17th straight win of the year and kept USC undefeated at home for the second straight season. For Anae's solid stand in the cage during the match, the senior was named MPSF Player of the Week for the fifth time in her career. In total this year, USC's senior field players have combined for 125 goals -- 41 percent of the team's scoring -- while Anae stands as USC's leader on record in career saves (694) and single-season saves (250).
NOT A TYPO
It's been over a decade since the Trojans so decisively dominated their crosstown rival UCLA as they did at the Stanford Invitational on February 7. After streaking ahead of the Bruins 8-0 in the game, USC pinned up a 13-3 victory over UCLA in the third-place game at the tourney. The Trojans and Bruins played out one-goal games last season in three meetings, and UCLA had won 10 straight games until USC snapped the streak with an 8-7 win in their first clash last year. In 1999, USC beat UCLA 11-1. The last time USC beat UCLA back-to-back was in 2006, and the Trojans made sure to match that mark with a powerful 14-5 win over the Bruins on April 17.
INVITATIONAL CHAMPS IN IRVINE
USC recaptured the top slot in the national rankings after a powerful championship run at the UC Irvine Invitational. The Trojans entered the tournament as the second-seeded team, beating Long Beach State 12-1 and then San Jose State 15-5 to earn a place in the semifinals, with 13 different Trojans scoring on the first day of play in Irvine. In the semifinals, Kally Lucas scored four for the Trojans as they beat Cal 10-5 win for a spot in the title match against top-seeded Stanford. There, USC avenged its only previous loss of the season and captured a key tournament championship along the way as the Women of Troy slammed No. 1 Stanford with a 10-6 win. The Trojans piled up an 8-2 lead by halftime, and Patricia Jancso finished with a hat trick en route to USC's big title win over the Cardinal. In handing the Cardinal its first loss of the year, USC extended its win streak to nine after taking a 10-7 loss to Stanford in the Stanford Invitational semifinals earlier in the month.
SWEEPS WEEK
After a winning week of MPSF and tournament competition, USC placed two players at the top of the list for MPSF weekly honors. Senior Kami Craig earned her third career MPSF Player of the Week award, and freshman Patricia Jancso was selected the MPSF Newcomer of the Week -- a new award bestowed on the top first-year player among MPSF teams each week. The pair combined for five goals in USC's 10-6 upset of Stanford in the championship game at the UC Irvine Invitational. Craig opened the week with a four-goal game in USC's MPSF opener against Hawai'i, and she added four more goals during the UCI Invite. Jancso scored nine goals in five games during the week, scoring in all five games. She topped out with a hat trick in the title match against Stanford. Now USC's third leading scorer with 30 goals to date, Jancso went on to pick up another MPSF Newcomer of the Week award with another selection on March 8.
WORLDLY ALL-AMERICANS
USC returns a fistful of All-Americans to the roster for 2009, and the group also hauls in added experience from international action during the offseason. 2008 U.S. Olympic silver-medalist and 2009 Cutino Award winner Kami Craig was joined by fellow Trojan All-Americans Tumua Anae, Forel Davies and Kristen Dronberger for U.S. National Team training. Anae, Davies and Dronberger all competed for Team USA at the Canada Cup in December, paying a visit to another USC All-American, Joelle Bekhazi, who is a member of the Canadian National Team. It was a Trojan All-American reunion again at the 2009 Holiday Cup as well, with Bekhazi again on the Canada roster and Craig and Davies capping up for the USA.
HOME POOL ADVANTAGE
USC's win over UCLA on April 17 rounded out another undefeated home season for the Women of Troy, marking the program's eighth season overall with a flawless stand in USC's home waters. So far, USC has completed undefeated runs at home in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009. That puts USC's home win streak at 18 straight victories at McDonald's Swim Stadium.
LAST SEASON
USC had a powerful 2009 season, racking up a 26-2 overall record that included a regular-season overtime loss to Stanford and a 5-4 loss to UCLA in the NCAA championship game. The Trojans made their third appearance in the national title match in four years and had beaten UCLA twice in one-goal games prior to the championship bout. The Women of Troy had beaten Stanford 5-4 in the MPSF tournament title match to clinch the automatic seed to the NCAA Tournament with USC's first MPSF Championship since 2004 and second all-time. Kami Craig went on to win the Peter J. Cutino Award, and was one of six Trojans to be named a 2009 All-American.
