Saturday, September 22
Los Angeles, CA
1:00 PM
USC
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Pacific
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Photo by: Katie Chin
Top-Ranked Trojans Back In Home Waters To Take On No. 6 Pacific
September 19, 2018 | Men's Water Polo, Features
Undefeated USC hosts the Tigers at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
#1 USC (11-0) vs. #6 Pacific (5-3)
Saturday, Sept. 22 | 1 p.m. | Uytengsu Aquatics Center
Series Record: USC leads 51-9 (W4)
Last Meeting: USC 11, PAC 7 (Nov. 5 2017)
LIVE STATS
Saturday, Sept. 22 | 1 p.m. | Uytengsu Aquatics Center
Series Record: USC leads 51-9 (W4)
Last Meeting: USC 11, PAC 7 (Nov. 5 2017)
LIVE STATS
THIS WEEK
The No. 1 Trojans are back in town for a single game set for home waters this weekend. USC (11-0) will host No. 6 Pacific (5-3) at 1 p.m. on Saturday (Sept. 22) at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
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 up into 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 Sept. 19). The Trojans wrapped 2017 at No. 2 in the land after reaching the NCAA final for the 13th consecutive season.
SCOUTING PACIFIC
The Tigers are 5-3 overall after a win and two losses at the Aggie Roundup last week. Pacific beat Cal Baptist 16-2 and lost to Cal 10-8 and to UC Santa Barbara 13-11. Luke Pavillard and Engin Ege Colak lead Pacific in scoring with 32 and 31 goals, respectively. Goalie Alen Osmanovic is averaging 10.3 saves and 12.8 goals-against per game. USC is 51-9 all-time against the Tigers with wins in the past four meetings. Last year, USC beat Pacific 11-7 in Stockton.
LAST ACTION
USC scooped up four more wins last week in a victorious run at the Aggie Roundup in Davis, Calif. The Trojans rolled through two top-10 opponents on the first day of play, shutting out both foes in the second period of play. The Trojans opened up with a well-rounded 10-3 win over No. 7 UC Santa Barbara before posting a 16-9 win over host No. 8 UC Davis. In the morning's matchup with UC Santa Barbara, the Trojans and Gauchos were largely in stride. USC opened up with back-to-back blasts from Zach D'Sa and Jacob Mercep before UCSB answered back with two of their own to lock things up 2-2. USC got the last word of the first frame with a second strike from D'Sa, and the next eight minutes would be all USC. The Trojans rendered the Gauchos scoreless in the second period while piling on three goals of their own — scores from Christian Hockenbury, Sam Slobodien and Daniel Leong — to build a 6-2 advantage at halftime. In the second half, freshman goalie Sam Krutonog continued in his control of the cage, adding six more saves to his tally to wrap the game with 10, marking an early career high for the newcomer. On the offensive end, USC punched up four more goals. Matt Maier and Mercep got to the back of the net early in the third, and USC would lead it 8-3 entering the final frame. There, Leong knocked in his second of the game, with Marin Dasic putting the finishing touches on the win as the Trojans would continue to shut down the Gauchos the rest of the way for a 10-3 final. A couple hours later against host UC Davis, freshman Nic Porter checked into the cage. He'd make a stellar save against a UC Davis 5-meter penalty shot en route to a nine-save day's work. At the other end of the pool, USC would chalk up three goals in the first frame, although the Aggies would match that in snarling things 3-3 after eight minutes of action. USC would kick it up a notch in the second, though, rattling off five unanswered goals from the hands of five different Trojans. Up 8-3 at the break, USC would stay the course the rest of the way. UC Davis would get some goals to go, but the Trojans remained hot-handed. By the final buzzer, 10 different Trojans had ripped through to the back of the net, led by freshman Hannes Daube's hat trick and a pair of blasts apiece from D'Sa, Leong, Maier and Mercep. USC shut out its Sunday opponents in five periods of play to lock up two more victories. The Trojans held Whittier scoreless in the first, second and fourth frames of a 13-2 win over the Poets before silencing the Sunbirds in the second and third of a 13-3 win over Fresno Pacific. The Trojans scored the first nine goals of the matchup with Whittier, staking themselves to a 9-0 halftime lead before the Poets were able to break through twice in the third frame. A 4-0 USC advantage in the first ballooned to that 9-0 edge thanks to a combined five goals in the second from Sam Slobodien and Maier. Slobodien hammered home three straight before giving way to back-to-back blasts from Maier as the Trojans took control. Capping off the game was Leong, who knocked in a pair of goals in the fourth while the Trojan defense clamped down again on Whittier to wrap up a 13-2 victory that marked the 10th of the year for the Trojans. Manning the cage in this one was Vaios Vlahotasios, who gathered in nine saves in his first complete-game effort as a Trojan. Matt Moran-Flores would cap up in goal for the second and final game of the day for the Trojans, making five stops while the USC defense shut out Fresno Pacific for a span of 20 minutes while forging an 11-2 advantage entering the fourth period. Eight different Trojans had combined for those 11 goals, with Vavic, Leong and Dasic delivering a pair apiece. The final goals would come from Hockenbury and Alexander Lansill, becoming the 12th and 13th Trojans to score on the day as USC wrapped the event with a 13-3 win over the Sunbirds.
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 freshmen Hannes Daube and Sam Krutonog are representative of the Trojans' balance on the year, as evident in their back-to-back picks as the MPSF Newcomer of the Week. Daube picked up his first award as a Trojan after he scored 12 goals and had 11 assists and seven steals across five USC wins in the second week of action. In USC's home opener on Sept. 6, Daube scored four goals to help the Trojans to a program-record 32 goals in a win over Concordia. Days later at the Inland Empire Classic, Daube led the Trojans with five goals in a 23-2 win over Redlands, adding one in a 17-2 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. On Sunday at the event, Daube scored once in wins over Concordia (23-5) and La Verne (20-5) to finish the week with 12 total goals. The very next week, goalie Sam Krutonog set an early career high for himself in making 10 saves in a complete game's work during top-ranked USC's 10-3 win over No. 7 UC Santa Barbara. With Krutonog in the cage, the Gauchos were shut out in the second and final periods as the Trojans claimed a decisive win in the first game of the Aggie Roundup. After his 10-save outing, Krutonog is now averaging 9.0 saves and 3.33 goals-against per game in 12 periods of work to date.
BY THE NUMBERS
Eleven games deep into the 2018 season, top-ranked USC is exhibiting great depth and balance. The Trojans have outscored opponents 208-43, averaging 18.9 goals per game and allowing just 3.9 goals-against per game. Leading the offensive charge so far is sophomore Marko Vavic with 25 goals, while nine other Trojans have also hit double digits. Sophomore Jacob Mercep is just behind Vavic with 24 goals to date, with freshman Hannes Daube next with 19. On the defensive end, USC has utilized four goalies, with freshman Sam Krutonog in the lead with 27 saves in four appearances. Just behind Krutonog on the saves chart is freshman Nic Porter with 24, sophomore transfer Vaios Vlahotasios with 23 saves and redshirt freshman Matt Moran-Flores with 17. In all, USC has had 16 Trojans score goals to date, with six USC newcomers in that mix. USC has shutout all but one opponent in at least one frame, totalling 19 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.
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.
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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