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Photo by: John McGillen/USC Athletics
Top-Ranked Trojans Take Trip North For TV Clash At No. 3 Stanford
October 03, 2018 | Men's Water Polo, Features
Undefeated USC faces undefeated Cardinal in a televised game on Saturday before returning home Sunday for SJSU.
#1 USC (17-0) at #3 Stanford (8-0)
Saturday, Oct. 6 | 2 p.m. | Avery Aquatic Center (Palo Alto)
Series Record: USC leads 67-60 (W8)
Last Meeting: USC 10, STAN 8 (Nov. 17, 2017)
TV: Pac-12 Los Angeles | Pac-12 Bay Area
(Commentator: Kevin Danna)
STREAM:Â pac-12.com/now
#1 USC vs. #16 San José State
Sunday, Oct. 7 | 12 p.m | Uytengsu Aquatics Center
Series Record: USC leads 6-0
Last Meeting: USC 24, SJSU 8 (Oct. 8, 2017)
THIS WEEK
The No. 1 Trojans come up against their highest-ranked oppnent of the year when USC (17-0) travels to take on No. 3 Stanford (8-0) for both teams' MPSF opener. The Trojans face the Cardinal at 2 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 6) in Palo Alto, with the game set to be broadcast on Pac-12 Los Angeles and Pac-12 Bay Area. From there, USC returns home to Uytengsu Aquatics Center for a matchup against No. 16 San José State (4-4) at 12 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 7).
RANKINGS
USC started its 2018 journey holding strong at No. 2 in the preseason national rankings, and after one week of work the Trojans bumped upinto a tie at No. 1 in the nation. In week two, USC took sole possession of the top spot, and the Trojans remain at No. 1 in this week's rankings (as of Oct. 3). The Trojans wrapped 2017 at No. 2 in the land after reaching the NCAA final for the 13th consecutive season.
SCOUTING STANFORD
The No. 3 Cardinal enter the week 8-0 after beating San José State 16-3 last week. Bennett Williams and Tyler Abramson are Stanford's top scorers with 25 and 24 goals, respectively. Goalie Oliver Lewis is averaging 12.5 saves and 4.7 goals-against per game. USC is 67-60 all-time against Stanford with wins in the past eight meetings. The Trojans beat the Cardinal 10-5 when the teams last met in the semifinals of the 2017 MPSF Tournament in Palo Alto. USC also won 8-6 in their 2017 MPSF meeting and won 11-10 in the semis of the 2017 Mountain Pacific Invitational.
SCOUTING SJSU
The No. 16 Spartans enter the week 4-4 overall after losing to Stanford 16-3 last week. Justin Pickering and Neil Arnett are SJSU's top scorers with 13 and 11 goals, respectively. Goalie Yahav Fire is averaging 9.2 saves per game. San José State will play UC Santa Barbara and UCLA before facing USC this Sunday. USC is 6-0 all-time against SJSU. In the last meeting, the Trojans beat the Spartans 24-8 at USC.
LAST ACTION
USC had another powerful string of performances last week in snagging five wins in three days' work. At the Lancer Invitational, the Trojans opened up with a 15-6 win over host No. 14 Cal Baptist with Matt Maier, Zach D'Sa and Luke Wyatt scoring two goals apiece while Nic Porter made seven saves in the game. Minutes later, USC set a season high with 16 different scorers in a 28-4 win over La Verne. D'Sa, Marko Vavic and Luka Karaman each had hat tricks in that one, while Sam Krutonog collected eight saves. The next day, USC posted an 18-5 win in its third meeting of the year against Concordia, led by four goals from Vavic and with seven saves from goalie Vaios Vlahotasios. Next, USC capped up its fourth goalie in four games with Matt Moran-Flores stepping into the cage against Redlands. He and the Trojan defense would silence the Bulldogs, marking the first shutout win for USC since 2016. Moran-Flores had four saves in USC's final game of the Lancer Joust, while Sawyer Rhodes netted a career-high three goals in the 14-0 victory. From there, USC returned home to host No. 5 UC Santa Barbara on Sunday afternoon. After the Gauchos got within one midway through the first period, the Trojans unleashed 11 straight goals to claim complete control over today's contest. Hannes Daube led the charge with four goals in three periods of work, while Krutonog collected a career-high 12 saves in the span before giving way to Porter for a shutout fourth period in USC's dominating 16-2 win over visiting UCSB. Daube would pick up his second MPSF Newcomer of the Week award after that four-goal outing for the Trojans.
OPENING WEEKEND
USC exploded out of the gates of the 2018 season in nabbing two communing victories in the Trojans' first official action of the season last weekend. Out at the UCLA Mini Invitational, USC pinned up a 16-1 win over No. 17 Pomona-Pitzer in the morning before delivering a 25-4 victory over Whittier. In building out a 2-0 start to the year, 12 players registered their first stats as Trojans. Six newcomers scored their first career goals, and four goalies notched their first career saves capped up as Trojans. In the opener, senior captain Zach D'Sa opened the Trojans' account, lighting the fuse on an 11-0 scoring rally in the first half by USC against No. 17 Pomona-Pitzer. During that surge, newcomers Hannes Daube, Jacob Mercep and Orestis Apergi punched up their first goals as Trojans while freshman goalie Sam Krutonog had an eight-save haul in his USC debut during the first half. In the second half, redshirt freshman goalie Matt Moran-Flores checked in for his first official minutes in the cage, backing up a stingy USC defense that allowed just a single Sagehen score down the stretch. Meanwhile, two more USC newcomers — Jake Ehrhardt and James Kolenda — pumped in their first USC goals to help the Trojans along to a final 16-1 victory. Mercep's hat trick had him as the scoring leader for the Trojans in this one, leading a pack of 10 USC scorers. Hours later, the Trojans were right back to it, taking on Whittier for game two of the season. This one saw another pair of new USC goalies share time in the cage, with freshman Nic Porter getting the start and transfer Vaios Vlahotasios coming in for the second half of action. Porter would pick up three saves, and Vlahotasios tallied six in his first 16 minutes of work as a Trojan. On the offensive end, relative veterans Marin Dasic and Daniel Leong led the charge with four goals apiece, topping a group of 12 Trojans to get to the back of the net in the 25-4 win. Along the way, freshman Alexander Lansill knocked in his first USC goal, becoming the sixth Trojan newcomer to score on the day.
WEEKLY WARRIORS
USC's freshman class has made its presence known in these early goings of 2018, with three different Trojans claiming the last four MPSF Newcomer of the Week awards. Hannes Daube picked up his first award as a Trojan on Sept. 10 after he scored 12 goals and had 11 assists and seven steals across five USC wins in the second week of action. The very next week, goalie Sam Krutonog was named MPSF Newcomer of the Week on Sept. 17 after setting an early career high for himself with 10 saves in a complete game's work during top-ranked USC's 10-3 win over No. 7 UC Santa Barbara. Next, yet another USC freshman had a career day that earned MPSF Newcomer of the Week accolades. On Sept. 24, goalie Nic Porter got the nod after making 14 saves in a full game's work during an 11-8 win over No. 6 Pacific. Most recently, Daube made it four in a row for the Trojan newcomers with his award on Oct. 1 following a four-goal outburst along with two assists and a steal in USC's 16-3 win over No. 5 UC Santa Barbara.
BY THE NUMBERS
Now around the halfway mark of the season, top-ranked USC continues to exhibit great depth and balance. The Trojans have outscored opponents 310-68, and are leading the MPSF offensively and defensively with 18.24 goals scored per game and just 4.0 goals-against per game. Leading the offensive charge so far is sophomore Marko Vavic with 39 goals. Next is freshman Jacob Mercep with 31, while seven other Trojans have hit the 20-goal zone. Senior Zach D'Sa is already just two goals away from his junior year tally, holding 24 so far in 2018. And in joining freshman Hannes Daube with 23 goals to date, Danny Leong has a new season best, while Matt Maier is three goals shy of his sophomore season high. On the defensive end, USC has utilized four goalies, with freshman Nic Porter in the lead with 50 saves in seven appearances. Just behind Porter on the saves chart is freshman Sam Krutonog with 47 in his six appearances. Sophomore transfer Vaios Vlahotasios follows with 30 saves, and redshirt freshman Matt Moran-Flores has made 21. In all, USC has had 18 Trojans score goals to date, with seven USC newcomers in that mix. USC set a season high with 16 different scorers in USC's Sept. 28 win over La Verne. In addition to a complete-game shutout of Redlands on Sept. 29, USC has shutout all but three opponents in at least one frame, totalling 25 shutout periods to date.
10 IN TWENTY?
As USC water polo prepares to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the program's first national championship, the 2018 Trojans are looking to add a 10th NCAA title to the storied program's collection of championship trophies. Under the guidance of head coach Jovan Vavic, who has been on-hand for all nine of the USC men's NCAA titles and all six of the USC women's national championships, the Trojan men are riding an unprecedented streak of 13 consecutive NCAA finals reached as they kick off this 2018 campaign.
ATTACKING BACK
Leading the charge for the Trojans is an arsenal of offensive firepower that is, in a word, daunting. USC's five returning members of the 2017 NCAA roster — Zach D'Sa, Marin Dasic and Sam Slobodien, two-time All-American Matt Maier and All-American and 2017 top scorer Marko Vavic — combined for 158 goals, which was 35 percent of USC's total scoring output on the year. But wait, there's more. For this 2018 campaign, USC has added in two high-powered transfers that help balloon that tally to 274. Last season as a true freshman at San José State, Jacob Mercep whipped up 93 goals and earned All-American honors. Sawyer Rhodes delivered 23 while at Stanford before both he and Mercep changed course to Troy.
CAGE FIGHTERS
After Cutino Award winner and Olympian McQuin Baron manned the cage almost single-handedly for the past four seasons, the Trojans are loaded up with goalies this year. Having five capable goalies in the mix lifts the level of competition in practice and forces the USC shooters to continually recalibrate their strategies for hitting the back of the net. As the season openers quickly approach, Vavic has his eyes on Australian Nic Porter and local product Sam Krutonog as his frontrunners. But he's been impressed, too, with the abilities of Matt Moran-Flores, Paul Matt and Vaios Vlahotasios. Porter is the third Australian goalie to cap up in the cage for the Trojans, following Olympians Joel Dennerley and James Clark. Dennerley won four NCAA championships at USC (2008-2011) before giving way to Clark for two seasons. Clark, too, anchored the Trojans to NCAA crowns both years he was at USC (2012 & 2013).
FIFTEEN FRESH FACES
USC's goalkeeping corps boasts four newcomers, who comprise just a corner of the 15-man class of incoming Trojans for 2018. Transfers Jacob Mercep and Sawyer Rhodes offer an instant dose of experience, but this new crew most certainly contains a number of impact freshmen as well. Most notably, USC gets a sizable boost from U.S. National Team members Hannes Daube and Jake Ehrhardt. Looming at 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-6, respectively, Daube and Ehrhardt are a double dose of danger for opposing teams. Add to that the even more international experience from Greece's Orestis Apergi and Aussies Corey Allan and James Kolenda, and the Trojan depth charge becomes even more apparent. Further, the Trojan freshman talent pool grows ever deeper with the addition of California products Mason Farley, Alexander Lansill and Bennett Winther. Goalie Paul Matt, Allan, Farley and Winther will redshirt this season, leaving 11 active newcomers. That means exactly half of USC's 2018 active roster is making Trojan debuts this year.
LAST SEASON
Last year, the USC men finished 27-4 overall, winning the 2017 MPSF Tournament and reaching the NCAA final for the 13th straight year. That USC roster would see six 2017 All-Americans play their final seasons, including senior first-teamers McQuin Baron and Lachlan Edwards. USC had two underclassmen earn All-America status last year, with freshman Marko Vavic picking up a second team selection and sophomore Matt Maier earning honorable mention. •
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