No. 1 USC Men's Water Polo’s Second-Half Outburst Stuns No. 3 Stanford in 14-9 Win

Sunday, November 2

Los Angeles, Calif.

1:00 p.m.

USC

17-2

Stanford

12-6

Stanford (M)

USC (M)

Photo by: Bryce Dechert

No. 1 USC Men's Water Polo’s Second-Half Outburst Stuns No. 3 Stanford in 14-9 Win

November 02, 2025 | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

The Trojans outscored the Cardinal, 11-3, in the second half to win their fourth straight game

LOS ANGELES – The No. 1-ranked USC men's water polo team (17-2, 4-1 MPSF) used an 11-3 second-half outburst to collect a 14-9 victory over No. 3 Stanford (12-6, 1-4) at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Sunday, Nov. 2. It was the fourth straight win for the Trojans.

Junior Luke Nelson scored in his eighth game and had the hat trick for his second-career multi-goal game. Junior Stefan Brankovic tallied five points collected on three assists and a pair of goals. It was the 11th game with a goal and the fifth with multiple goals for Brankovic. Senior Jack Vort finished with four points with two goals and two assists that helped spur the Trojans' big third-quarter turnaround. It was Vort's eighth game with a goal and his fifth with multiple goals.

Redshirt senior Jack Martin also scored two goals—both in the fourth quarter—for his 14th game with a goal and the ninth with multiple goals. Five Trojans scored one goal each including senior Evan Ausmus, senior Andrej Grgurevic—who also had a pair of assists, junior Robert López Duart, and freshmen Strahinja Krstic and Efe Naipoglu. USC goalies split time in the cage and each produced a pair of saves. Redshirt junior Bernardo Herzer occupied the goal in the first half and redshirt sophomore Charles Mills had the second half. Mills had several long outlet passes that resulted in goals and earned a pair of assists in the process.

The teams scored two goals apiece in the first quarter. Brankovic scored the game's first goal and then found Nelson to rack an assist on USC's second goal with 1:37 to play in the frame. Stanford got a 6-on-5 goal from Botond Balogh and went on top, 2-1, momentarily on a goal by Guido Leonardi at 2:44. Balogh struck again to make it 3-2 for the Cardinal in the second quarter before Gianpero Di Martire put Stanford up, 4-2, with a goal at 5:17. USC had a quick response to close the gap to one goal on a Martin bell-ringer off a feed from Nelson, but Stanford went up by two again, 5-3, on a goal by Ben Forer (3:33). Di Martire scored once more with four seconds to play to make it a 6-3 Cardinal lead heading into the break.

In the span of 105 seconds, the Trojans scored four goals to wrestle the lead from the Cardinal and take a 7-6 advantage. Vort opened with a goal on a dish from Brankovic first. Moments later, USC closed to within one when Brankovic found Nelson for the goal. Mills—in goal to open the second half—then setup Grgurevic on the break to equalize at six-all. The Trojans went on top, 7-6, when López Duart took another outlet pass from Mills to put it past the Cardinal goalie. Before the quarter had reached its midway point, Vort scored again off a pass from Grgurevic to make it 8-6. Stanford scored one to stem the tide, but Vort found Naipoglu who put it past the keeper and off the post for the ninth USC goal of the day and a 9-7 lead heading into the fourth.

Nelson got on the board to get the scoring started in the fourth quarter and put USC up by three, 10-7. Di Martire drew the Cardinal within two on a penalty shot goal with just over four minutes left to play, but turnabout was fair play as Brankovic earned a penalty shot on the other end and found the twine to push the Trojans in front, 11-8. Martin made it a dozen when he took a pass into the post from Grgurevic for the goal with less than two minutes to play. Krstic added one more at 1:07 to make it 13-8, but Stanford responded immediately. Mills tossed one more pass the length of the pool to set Martin up for the Trojans' 14th goal.

UP NEXT
USC hosts No. 15 UC Santa Barbara for a nonconference contest on Saturday (Nov. 8) at Uytengsu Aquatics Center. Opening sprint for the Trojans and Gauchos is set for 1 p.m. PT and the game will be shown live on overnght.com.