USC
Pomona-Pitzer
No. 1 USC Dominates Day One At SoCal Tourney
October 01, 2011 | Men's Water Polo
Oct. 1, 2011
LONG BEACH, CALIF. - Dominating starts to both games today propelled the No. 1 USC men's water polo team on a path to the semifinals at the 2011 SoCal Tournament. The Trojans blasted No. 20 Pomona-Pitzer 21-1 and took down No. 7 UC Irvine 11-5 to win their group and advance a step closer toward defending eight straight SoCal tourney titles. Now toting a 9-0 record, USC moves over to the action in Los Alamitos at the Joint Forces Training Base tomorrow (Oct. 2) for an 11:10 a.m. semifinal against either Stanford or Pepperdine. Including the 13-game win streak with which USC finished the 2010 season, the Trojans boast a 22-game win streak on the way into Sunday's SoCal Tournament competition.
Two Trojans tacked up their first collegiate goals in the morning win over Pomona-Pitzer. Redshirt freshman A.J. MacDonell went big with a fourth-period hat trick to join a set of five Trojans with multiple goals in the game. True freshman Marc Vonderweidt also plugged in his first goal as a Trojan during USC's blitz of scoring in the fourth frame. His goal capped off USC's 15-goal surge as the defense silenced the Sagehens through 26 minutes of action. Pomona-Pitzer finally cracked the drought with a score from Jarrod Gaut to make it 15-1, but the Trojans rattled off six more goals in the last six minutes of play to round out a 21-1 victory. Ivan Kustic led all scorers with four goals in the Trojan win, with MacDonell and Michael Rosenthal adding three apiece and Jeremy Davie and Mace Rapsey punching in two each. In all, a season-high of 12 different players scored for USC. Redshirt freshman goalie Ely Bonilla went the distance in the cage for the Trojans and grabbed six saves to anchor the defensive stand.
In the afternoon tangle with UC Irvine, the Trojans rolled out to a 4-0 lead on the Anteaters with goals from Tobias Preuss, Kostas Genidounias, Nikola Vavic and Brian Boswell. UCI broke the silence in the second frame, but USC punched in three more next for a 7-1 advantage at halftime. Genidounias would provide a goal in each of the first three periods to lead USC in scoring with a hat trick, while eight other Trojans also got to the back of the net in a widespread attack by the USC offense. Joel Dennerley played the first three periods in goal for USC, stopping five shots before Bonilla came in for two saves in the fourth.
2011 SoCal Tournament - Long Beach, Calif.
GAME ONE - Oct. 1
#1 USC 21, #20 Pomona-Pitzer 1
USC 7 - 4 - 2 - 8 = 21
P-P 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 1
SCORING:
USC - Ivan Kustic 4, Michael Rosenthal 3, A.J. MacDonell 3, Jeremy Davie 2, Mace Rapsey 2, Nikola Vavic, Forest Monroe, Kostas Genidounias, Brian Boswell, Marc Vonderweidt, Andrew Reego, Andy Hayes.
P-P - Jarrod Gaut.
SAVES: Ely Bonilla (USC) 6, Tyler Hill (P-P) 2, Austin Strong (P-P) 4.
GAME TWO - Oct. 2
#1 USC 11, #7 UC Irvine 5
USC 3 - 4 - 3 - 1 = 11
UCI 0 - 1 - 2 - 2 = 5
SCORING:
USC - Kostas Genidounias 3, Nikola Vavic, Tobias Preuss, Forest Monroe, Connor Virjee, Brian Boswell, Jeremy Davie, Andrew Reego, Mace Rapsey.
UCI - Mitch Wise 2, Sam Figueroa, Derrik Jarvis, Jacob Mourer.
SAVES: Joel Dennerley (USC) 5 [3 periods], Ely Bonilla (USC) 2 [4th period], Michael Bailey (UCI) 8.
Players Mentioned
