Saturday, November 2
Los Angeles, Calif.
1:00 PM
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Stanford
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Photo by: Katie Chin
Trojans Play Final Home Games Of 2019 This Weekend
October 30, 2019 | Men's Water Polo, Features
In a 2018 NCAA Championship rematch, USC hosts Stanford on Saturday for Senior Day before facing San José State on Sunday.
SENIOR DAY
#7 USC (9-4) vs. #1 Stanford (15-1)
#7 USC (9-4) vs. #1 Stanford (15-1)
Saturday, Nov. 2 | 1 p.m. | Uytengsu Aquatics Center
Series Record: USC leads 69-61 (W2)
Last Meeting: USC 14, STAN 12 (Dec. 2, 2018)
#7 USC vs. #12 San José State
Sunday, Nov. 3 | 1 p.m. | Uytengsu Aquatics Center
Series Record: USC leads 7-0 (W7)
Last Meeting: USC 16, SJSU 5 (Sept. 30, 2019)
THIS WEEK
No. 7 USC (9-4) settles into home waters for its final games of the year at Uytengsu Aquatics Center this weekend. On Saturday (Nov. 2), USC will honor is five graduating Trojans in a Senior Day ceremony before the game. It's the final home weekend for USC's Marin Dasic, Troy Furniss, Luka Karaman, Matt Maier and Sam Slobodien. At 1 p.m., USC hits the water to face No. 1 Stanford (15-1) in their first MPSF matchup of the season and a rematch of the 2018 NCAA Championship game that the Trojans won last year. Then on Sunday (Nov. 3), USC squares off against No. 12 San José State (7-13) at 1 p.m. in the final home tilt of 2019 at Uytengsu.
RANKINGS
The defending NCAA champs opened up 2019 ranked No. 1 in the nation. An early loss sent the Trojans to No. 5 in the land on Sept. 18. USC climbed up to No. 4 in the Oct. 9 rankings before moving to No. 6 in the Oct. 23 rankings. The Trojans are ranked No. 7 as of this week (Oct. 30).
HEY HEY IT'S SENIOR DAY
On Saturday (Nov. 2), USC will honor five graduating Trojans. Redshirt senior Sam Slobodien is the relative veteran of the bunch. The other four Trojans entered USC at the same time. Captains Marin Dasic and Matt Maier have been in the water with Slobodien for four seasons of work now. Troy Furniss and Luka Karaman, meanwhile, redshirted their first seasons and are now in their third year of competition. All five had a hand in USC's run to the 2018 NCAA Championship last season, with Dasic, Maier and Slobodien all picking up All-American honors. That trio has combined for 305 goals as Trojans to date, with Karaman and Furniss adding another combined 37 to USC's offensive onslaught in their Trojan careers.
SCOUTING STANFORD
The No. 1 Cardinal are 15-1 overall after beating Pepperdine 12-11 last week. Ben Hallock leads Stanford and the MPSF in scoring with 48 goals. Goalie Kyle McKenney is averaging 8.3 saves and 9.54 goals against per game in 14 appearances, and goalie Andrew Chun averages 8.87 saves and 8.0 goals-against per game in 15 appearances. USC is 69-61 all-time against the Cardinal with wins in the last two meetings. Last year, USC fell 13-11 at Stanford in the teams' MPSF meeting, but USC claimed a 10-9 win in the MPSF final and posted a 14-12 win over the Cardinal in the 2018 NCAA Championship game.
SCOUTING SJSU
The No. 12 Spartans enter the week at 7-13 overall with a Saturday matchup at Pepperdine on tap before facing USC on Sunday. Last week, SJSU went 3-1 at the Julian Fraser Memorial, beating Princeton 7-6, falling to Harvard 10-8 and beating St. Francis 12-7 and Bucknell 11-10 in sudden victory. Finn Pardon leads the Spartans in scoring with 32 goals. Goalie Yahav Fire is averaging 11.11 saves and 10.11 goals against per game in 19 appearances. USC is 7-0 all-time against the Spartans after a 16-5 Trojan win last year at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
LAST ACTION
USC saw a three-goal lead wash away on the road as the Trojans wound up with a 13-12 loss at the hands of No. 6 host Pepperdine two weeks ago in Malibu. The Trojans came out of the gates strong, knocking in the first three goals of the game on blasts from Hannes Daube, Jake Ehrhardt and Marin Dasic while the USC defense did its job and allowed just a single 6-on-5 score by the Waves to lead it 3-1 by the end of the first. Daube kept drilling down for USC on the offensive end, slotting three more goals as the Trojans stole ahead 7-4 with Chris Sturtevant also issuing a sizzler along the way. Pepperdine would notch an even score with 1:21 left in the half, and that 7-5 USC lead would stand at the break. In the third, a string of successful Pepperdine 6-on-5 opportunities helped the Waves work even with the Trojans, who got a lone solo shot from Ehrhardt to go in as the game wound up snarled at 8-8 entering the fourth. That final frame was a wild now, with nine goals scored in total. The Trojans fell behind for the first time in the game when Pepperdine knocked in an early goal. USC would play catch-up next as Luke Wyatt laced in an equalizer next, and later Dasic answered another Pepperdine score with a 6-on-5 finish to make it 10-10 with 4:46 to go. The Waves would surge next. Another successful 6-on-5 got the hosts into a lead it would not relinquish, but not before the Waves sizzled in two more goals for a three-goal lead at 13-10 with 3:14 remaining Ehrhardt completed his hat trick with a mean crosscage rocket to make it 13-11, but USC would be unable to break through until there were just 10 ticks to go, with Matt Maier hammering home a goal to make it a one-goal margin but without the time left to force overtime.
CENTURY CLUB
USC's newest card-carrying member of the 100-goal club is senior Marin Dasic. With his eighth of a final 10 goals scored out at the Inland Empire Classic, Dasic drummed up the 100th goal of his USC career. Dasic now boasts 119 career goals to date to rank No. 28 all-time among career scorers at USC. And he has several fellow Trojans also closing in on the club, with Jacob Mercep gripping 94 career goals and Sam Slobodien and Matt Maier with 93 goals each.
BY THE NUMBERS
Now 13 games into the season, USC has outscored opponents 185-124. The Trojan offense is generating 14.23 goals per game while the defense has allowed 9.54 goals-against per game. Leading the offensive charge so far are junior Jacob Mercep and Marin Dasic with 32 and 27 goals, respectively. Sophomore Hannes Daube is next with 22 goals, followed by senior Sam Slobodien are next and sophomore Jake Ehrhardt with 18 goals apiece. On the defensive end, USC has utilized three goalies. All-American sophomore Nic Porter has capped up in eight games and averages 10.15 saves per game while giving up 10.15 goals per game. Junior Vaios Vlahotasios has appeared in seven games with a 9.67 saves-per-game effort and allowing 9.33 goals-against per game. Jere Ashby has also checked in for two periods of work, having collected nine saves and allowed just two goals in his appearances in the cage. In all, USC has had 16 different Trojans score to date, with five players tallying their first career goals. USC set a season high with 15 different scorers in USC's Sept. 15 win over Concordia.
SUMMER SUCCESS
Capped up for competition around the globe, several Trojans went big in international waters during the summer of 2019. Captain of the USA's World University Games squad, Jake Ehrhardt helped guide Team USA to a silver medal at the event in Italy. Soon after, Hannes Daube and Marko Vavic were on-hand for the United States' push to Olympic qualification. Those two Trojans grabbed gold medals at the Pan American Games in Peru to secure the USA men's spot at the 2020 Olympic Games. Daube and Vavic also competed with Team USA at the FINA World Championships in South Korea, where the United States men placed ninth. Freshman Chris Sturtevant also got in on international action over the summer as a member of Great Britain's World University Games squad in Italy.
PINTA'S PROGRAM
Marko Pintaric, who has been part of 14 NCAA championships during his 18 years on the USC coaching staff, was named head coach of the USC men's and women's water polo teams on August 29, replacing former head coach Jovan Vavic. An All-American and 1998 NCAA champion as a player at USC, Pintaric served as co-head coach for the USC men for the past three seasons (2016-18), most recently helping the Trojans to the 2018 NCAA Championship. His USC coaching career began as an assistant coach to both the USC men and women in 2001. Pintaric stayed in a dual coaching role until NCAA rules for coaching staff sizes changed in 2015-16, prompting a move to a scouting director role with the women while his assistant coaching role continued with the men for the next four years. Pintaric, who scored the game-winning goal in USC's first-ever national championship, finished his USC playing career before he had the chance to defend the Trojans' 1998 NCAA title. In 18 years since on the coaching staff, he has helped five USC men's water polo teams successfully defend their NCAA crowns. Now, as the head coach, Pintaric has the opportunity to set up defense of another NCAA trophy.
ALL-AMERICAN LEADERSHIP Senior captains Marin Dasic, Matt Maier and Sam Slobodien are seasoned, savvy and certain leaders for a USC roster brimming with talent. They are three of eight returning All-Americans, including a power pack of four of 2018 newcomers who exploded onto the scene in their first seasons as Trojans. Sophomores Hannes Daube, Jake Ehrhardt and Nic Porter and junior Jacob Mercep made indelible marks on the stat sheets for USC last year, and they are in full stride for 2019. Daube, Ehrhardt and junior Marko Vavic also combine forces in training with the U.S. National Team, with Daube and Vavic on-hand over the summer to help Team USA qualify for the Olympic Games, while Ehrhart captained the USA's World University Games team to a silver medal. Aussie goalie Porter and Croatian product Mercep represent possibly one of the most daunting one-two punches out there, as Porter stops shots on the defensive end while Mercep scores them at the other.
SENIOR STRENGTH
While All-Americans Dasic, Maier and Slobodien are in their final seasons of competition, there are three other noteworthy Trojans in their fourth years with the program. Redshirt juniors Troy Furniss, Luka Karaman and Luke Wyatt also play a hefty leadership role for the group. Their dedication and hard work, too, have lifted all of them into significant contribution roles in the water as well. A lefty, Wyatt punched up 23 goals for the Trojan cause last season, including one in the NCAA Championship game. Karaman and Furniss factored in for 12 goals apiece in 2018.
CAGE FIGHTERS
In goal, returning All-American Nic Porter has been pushed once more by teammate Vaios Vlahotasios, who was also a newcomer to the USC cage in 2018 and who has proven himself a shot-stopping force to reckon with. Porter and Vlahotasios are a formidable goalie tandem for the Trojans, and are joined by freshman Garrett Allen and sophomore Jere Ashby as USC's talented goalkeeping corps for 2019.
THE NEW CREW
USC has 11 new Trojans in Cardinal and Gold in 2019. On the first weekend of competition, much of that group earned their stripes. Goalie Jere Ashby checked in for his first time in the cage, while fellow newcomers Matt Harrison, Marcus Longton, Grayden Reynolds and Chris Sturtevant all registered their first goals as Trojans.
LAST SEASON
The 2018 Trojans reached the NCAA final for the 14th consecutive season and emerged with the trophy for the 10th time in program history. A 14-12 win over host Stanford saw USC claim the national championship and finish out its first 30-win season. At the close of the winning campaign, USC had a program-record 10 Trojans earn All-America status, while newcomer Jacob Mercep scored NCAA Tournament MVP honors after a five-goal outburst in the title match. Mercep and freshman Hannes Daube both picked up All-America First Team honors to lead the pack of 10 honorees in USC's 30-3 season. •
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