USC
Fresno Pacific
Defending Champs Open 2011 With Win
September 04, 2011 | Men's Water Polo
Sept. 4, 2011
IRVINE, CALIF. -- The No. 1 USC men's water polo team kicked off its 2011 campaign for a fourth straight NCAA championship by tacking up a powerful win in its season opener. The Trojans' first official match of the year came this morning amidst a series of weekend scrimmages at the UCI Invitational, with USC topping Fresno Pacific 26-4 at Anteater Pool.
Three Trojans had four-goal outings to lead USC to the resounding victory. Two prolific Trojan scorers were playing in their first game, with redshirt freshman Zach Lucas ringing up one of those four-goal efforts and true freshman Matt Schwartz going for a hat trick. Senior Peter Kurzeka and redshirt sophomore Stephen Siri also punched up four goals to help lead USC's scoring onslaught on the day. Joining Lucas and Schwartz as first-time Trojan scorers were Kevin Cappon and Ivan Kustic, who each tallied two goals for the USC cause.
USC opened the game by scoring seven straight goals against Fresno Pacific, which would get on the board in the first frame to make it 7-1 entering the second. USC went bigger in that one, racking up 10 goals to take a 17-1 lead at halftime. In all, 11 Trojans got to the back of the net in the game, as USC opens 2011 with a 1-0 start.
USC's home opener comes up next, as the Trojans host Cal Baptist for a noon clash on Saturday (Sept. 10), followed by the USC Alumni Game at McDonald's Swim Stadium.
UCI Invitational -- Sept. 4, 2011
#1 USC 26, Fresno Pacific 4
USC 7 - 10 - 5 - 4 = 26
FPU 1 - 0 - 3 - 0 = 4
SCORING:
USC -- Stephen Siri 4, Peter Kurzeka 4, Zach Lucas 4, Matt Schwartz 3, Forest Monroe 2, Kevin Cappon 2, Brian Boswell 2, Ivan Kustic 2, Matthew Burton, Nikola Vavic, Andrew Reego.
FPU --Glenn Lyon 2, Nick Serratos, Sascha Ludwig.
SAVES: Joel Dennerley (USC) 4, Jacob Cross (FPU) 1
Players Mentioned
