No. 2 Trojans Seek Fourth Straight SoCal Tournament Title
October 07, 2015 | Men's Water Polo
THIS WEEK
USC's championship savvy has shined brightly at the annual SoCal tournaments in recent history, and this weekend the No. 2 Trojans will go on another push to keep their supremacy at the event going strong. Winners of the past three titles at the tourney and a grand total of 12 in the past 13 years, the Trojans will open up action at the 2015 Kap7 SoCal Invitational on Saturday (Oct. 10) in Malibu, Calif. No. 2 USC (12-1, 3-0 MPSF) starts up against San Jose State at 10:40 a.m. that day in group play at Pepperdine's Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool. The Trojans will face either No. 6 UC Santa Barbara or No. 15 UC San Diego to finish out group action that afternoon. Two wins on Saturday would put USC into a semifinal bout at noon on Sunday (Oct. 11) in Malibu. The championship match is set for 5:30 p.m. that evening, preceded by a 4 p.m. third-place game. All games at Pepperdine will be streamed live through links available at the Tournament Central page.
USC was tabbed at No. 2 in the nation in the preseason national poll and in the MPSF preseason coaches' poll as the Trojans take aim the 2015 season. USC has reached the NCAA title match for 10 consecutive seasons, with seven championships won in that span, and the Trojans are intent on a return trip to the top this year. The Trojans spent two weeks at the No. 3 spot but have jumped back up to No. 2 this week as they enter the fifth week of 2015 competition.
SOCAL TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
SOCAL NOTES
This year's edition of the competitive SoCal Tournament has two hosts, LMU and Pepperdine. Once again, 16 of the nation's top teams will do battle with the defending champion Trojans taking aim at their 12th SoCal crown in the past 13 years. All 10 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams will be included, six other teams from outside conferences. Air Force is the lone team coming in from out-of-state, joining a California-heavy field that also includes LMU, UC San Diego, Pomona-Pitzer, Concordia and Santa Clara to round out the 16-team field. All told, 13 teams are ranked in the nation's top-20. Last year, USC topped Air Force 12-5 and edged UC Santa Barbara 11-9 on day one to reach the semis. There, USC blasted UCLA 10-6 to advance to the title match against Cal. The Trojans would fend off the Bears for a 10-9 victory that secured USC's third straight SoCal Tournament title and 11th in an 12-year span.
LAST WEEK
USC had a winning weekend at Uytengsu Aquatics Center last week. The highlight came on Saturday when the Trojans served up some sweet revenge for their lone loss of the year in riding out a wild game to beat No. 2 Stanford with a winning overtime surge. After the Cardinal made a five-goal rally to force OT, USC regrouped and silenced Stanford down the stretch to pull out a 12-8 victory. Backed up by a ferocious stand in the cage by goalie McQuin Baron, the Trojans were able to keep reloading for strikes against Stanford. Five of Baron's final 18 saves came in overtime, while USC's offense poured on four goals to break free of the 8-8 lockup that the Cardinal had forced by the close of regulation. The game opened up neck-and-neck, with the Trojans and Cardinal taking turns reeling each other in and both goalies standing tall in the cage. Grant Stein was the first to break though, notching a goal for USC on the opening possession. Four minutes later, Stanford broke its silence with a 6-on-5 strike to equalize and then broke through again in the final minute to take the lead 2-1. With 30 seconds to go, USC pieced together a smooth passing series, working the ball from Nick Silvers to Bryce Hoerman to freshman Zach D'Sa for a searing score that pulled things even again. Stanford's lead lasted all of 19 seconds. USC would climb ahead 8-3 before the Cardinal rallied back, netting the equalizer with 29 seconds left in regulation to cap a five-goal surge and force overtime. In the first OT frame, it was junior Nick Bell who lit the lamp off a feed from Matteo Morelli to punch up a 6-on-5 score that took the Trojans to a 9-8 advantage. In the next stretch, Baron slammed down four Stanford shots to keep the Cardinal out of the net. Meanwhile, an early steal from Morelli sent USC the other way, seeing James Walters hit Mihajlo Milicevic for a blast from the top that made it 10-8 Trojans. A minute later, after Baron and the USC defense put a stop to a Stanford power play, Milicevic found Lachlan Edwards for a turn and rocket that tallied the sophomore's third impressive goal of the game. Two more Baron saves came next, and then Bell put the finishing touches on the win with one final score to wrap the 12-8 USC victory over the visiting Cardinal. The next afternoon, USC welcomed San Jose State back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1979, but the Trojans didn't give up any ground to the visiting Spartans. Instead, USC racked up a 17-3 win over San Jose State after getting 10 different players in on the scoring action. USC also utilized all three goalies in the win, while hat tricks came from the hands of Blake Edwards, Lazar Pasuljevic and Stein.
BY THE NUMBERS
Just 13 games into 2015, the Trojans are putting up some big numbers. Led by newcomer Blake Edwards with 35 goals, Matteo Morelli with 22 goals and Grant Stein and Lachlan Edwards with 20 apiece, USC has outscored opponents 251-69. Defensively, USC is allowing just 5.3 goals per game and has held opponents scoreless in 10 periods of regulation play so far. In these early stages of the year, USC currently ranks No. 1 in the MPSF in offense (19.3 gpg) and No. 2 in defense (5.3 gapg).
2015 TROJANS AT A GLANCE
As head coach Jovan Vavic digs into his third decade at the helm of the USC water polo program, the 2015 Trojans look to be a force to reckon with once again. Coming off their 10th consecutive trip to the NCAA final, the Trojans bring back a hefty load of players from that 2014 campaign. The only Trojan with three full seasons under his belt is redshirt senior Mac Carden. Meanwhile, USC's youth movement now includes a powerful group of sophomores, including All-Americans McQuin Baron, Mihajlo Milicevic and James Walters. The relative veteran of that 2014 All-American crew, Nick Bell, enters his junior season as a Trojan. Baron and Bell also were All-MPSF honorees last season along with now-graduated All-Americans Rex Butler and Marc Vonderweidt and Cutino Award winner Kostas Genidounias.
BALANCE IS BEST
For the first time in years, USC doesn't have a one-man scoring machine who stands out above the rest. In back-to-back seasons, the Trojans saw the program scoring record broken — first by Nikola Vavic in 2013 and then by Kostas Genidounias in 2014. This year, however, the scoring record is decidedly safe, as no returning Trojan comes into the season with more than 43 career goals. The last time that USC had this kind of off-the-radar offensive abilities was 2010, according to Vavic. That year, USC had no seniors on the roster, and still went on to capture a third consecutive NCAA championship. This season, aside from redshirt senior Mac Carden, the only other Trojan with first-hand experience of playing in and winning an NCAA championship is junior All-American Nick Bell, who raised the 2013 trophy alongside Carden. Just 13 games into the year, the Trojans' balanced effort is already apparent, with seven players having scored 15 goals or more to date.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
In 2014, USC had a whopping nine freshmen on the roster for the NCAA Tournament. Three of those freshmen earned All-American status last season and are back for more along with fellow All-American junior Nick Bell. Mihajlo Milicevic, James Walters and goalie McQuin Baron were All-American honorees after making a huge splash on the scene in their first seasons as Trojans. Baron set a USC record for single-season saves with 288 blocks logged in the cage last year. He'll be joined once again in leading USC's goalkeeping corps with sophomore Ben Goncharenko, with redshirt freshman goalie Steven Michaud also in the mix this season. USC's depth charge runs deeper as one takes into account the likes of sophomores Lachlan Edwards, Bryce Hoerman, Matteo Morelli, Lazar Pasuljevic and Grant Stein — all members of USC's 2014 NCAA Tournament roster. Morelli was the most productive of the group last year, scoring 40 goals for the Trojan cause, just ahead of 34 from Walters, 33 from Stein and 31 from Edwards. This year is seeing a similar trend as Morelli, Edwards, Stein and Walters have all scored at least 12 goals already in their early sophomore seasons.
FRESH FACES
Along with the addition of junior newcomer Blake Edwards, USC has a solid set of talent locked into their first season of action as Trojans. True freshmen Zach D'Sa, Nick Lavayen and Nick Silvers are in line to considerable playing time this year. Head coach Jovan Vavic also is excited about the activation of a few players who redshirted last year, namely Murphy Slater, Tristan Reinhardt and Chase Koplow, as well as the marked improvement of redshirt sophomore Mitch Embrey. Many of those newbies wasted little time getting on the scoresheet, and the trend has continued. Entering this weekend, every one of the aforementioned young guns have scored two goals or more already. In all, eight players who have logged their first career minutes at Trojans this season have scored so far this year.
NORCAL INVITE RECAP
USC wound up with a third-place finish at the 2015 Kap7 NorCal Invitational in Palo Alto. The Trojans pinned up two big wins in group play, beating Redlands 27-3 and then topping UC Irvine 12-4 to advance to Sunday's semifinals. There, the Trojans clashed with host Stanford, falling behind the Cardinal before making a comeback push to make a game of it. Still, Stanford was able to hang on for a 6-5 victory to relegate the Trojans to the third-place match. In that one, USC kept California at bay and powered on for a 12-9 victory over the Bears to claim third at the tourney. Chase Koplow and Mac Carden led a group of 15 scorers against Redlands with four and three goals apiece, respectively. Against UC Irvine, Luke Felton was the ringleader with a hat trick. On day one of the event, USC true freshman Nick Lavayen and redshirt freshman Tristan Reinhardt both rang up their first career goals as Trojans. In the semifinal bout against host Stanford, both defenses were stingy throughout, but it was the Cardinal that proved most potent in the first half. USC was unable to break through until midway through the third period of play. Stanford had grabbed a 3-0 lead at halftime while USC's offense struggled to take shape. In the third, USC's Blake Edwards helped the Trojans find their scoring touch in getting the Trojans on the board. In the fourth, Edwards netted the equalizer at 4-4 for the Trojans with 4:45 on the clock, only to see Stanford bump back ahead on its very next possession. Two minutes later, USC was back in a two-goal hole, trailing 6-4 with 2:12 to go. Cue Edwards once more. The Aussie newcomer sliced in his third of the day to cut it to a one-goal margin again, but the Trojans were unable to crack the Cardinal in the remaining time. That left the Trojans with a 6-5 loss -- their first of the year -- to move into the evening's third-place game against Cal. USC got going early in that one, drumming up four goals in the first frame. A largely tightly contested game turned into a relatively lopsided Trojan win as USC worked out of reach of Cal in the fourth. An 8-7 USC lead entering the final frame ballooned to 11-7 with goals from James Walters and the brothers Edwards next. McQuin Baron continued to loom large in the cage to keep the Bears at bay as USC wrapped up a 12-9 final victory over Cal to end the day in third place at the NorCal Invite.
QUALIFIED!
Over the summer, several Trojans combined forces with their respective national teams in order to secure qualification to the coming 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Current USC goalie McQuin Baron capped up along with USC grad Nikola Vavic for Team USA, winning gold at the 2015 Pan American Games to earn the United States a spot in Rio. Weeks later, those two Trojans were among a group of four USC men in action at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia. When the waves settled out there, USC's recent grad Kostas Genidounias was gripping a bronze medal that secured Greece with a ticket to the 2016 Games. The fourth Trojan male competing at Worlds was another Cutino Award winner, goalie Joel Dennerley, who is looking to make another Olympic appearance for Australia when he and the Aussies fight for qualification out of Oceania.
2014 RECAP
USC continued its streak of reaching NCAA title matches after upsetting No. 2 seeded Stanford in sudden-death overtime in the NCAA semifinals. The No. 3 seeded Trojans had to start their NCAA journey with a play-in game, and would surge into the final to face top-seeded UCLA. A 9-8 loss left the 2014 Trojans short of a seventh consecutive national championship, but the young Trojans had made a statement still in reaching the NCAA final for the 10th straight year. Under head coach Jovan Vavic's guidance, USC finished the 2014 campaign with a 24-7 overall record after a 6-2 mark in MPSF play. Senior Kostas Genidounias broke USC's all-time scoring record en route to being named the Peter J. Cutino Award recipient to go along with his 2014 honors as MPSF and National Player of the Year. The four-time All-American was joined by fellow seniors Rex Butler and Marc Vonderweidt on 2014's All-American honor roll, as were four representatives of USC's youth movement in sophomore Nick Bell and freshmen McQuin Baron, Mihajlo Milicevic and James Walters. In all, the Trojan offense — charged by 21 different scorers — averaged 14-2 goals per game, while the defense allowed 6.9 goals against per game. By season's end, USC had outscored opponents 439-213. Freshman goalie Baron set the USC record for single-season saves with 288 collected in his first year as a Trojan.
FIGHTING ON FOR JON
On Jan. 8, 2014, the Trojan Family lost a special member in the passing of USC freshman Jon Walters. At 19 years old, Walters was an NCAA Champion, beloved teammate and a Trojan warrior for the USC men's water polo team. His loss has touched the Trojan Family and the water polo world deeply, and the USC water polo program continues to play with Jon in their hearts. As a first-year freshman 2-meter man, Jon Walters was a key contributor on USC's 2013 NCAA championship men's water polo team that won a sixth consecutive NCAA title in December. He scored 17 goals on the year, including two in the NCAA semifinal game and another two in the MPSF championship game, despite missing the middle part of the season with an elbow injury. A native of Newport Beach, he attended Mater Dei High School, where he was an All-American and the 2012 CIF Player of the Year. Jon's younger brother James is now a sophomore at USC, coming off a freshman campaign that saw the younger Walters earn All-American Honorable Mention in 2014. •
Players Mentioned
