No. 2 USC Men’s Water Polo Dismantles No. 13 UC Irvine

Saturday, September 12

Los Angeles, Calif.

1:00 p.m.

USC

7-0

UC Irvine

7-3

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
UC Irvine Men 2026	2	5	4	4	15
USC (M)	5	6	8	5	24

No. 2 USC Men’s Water Polo Dismantles No. 13 UC Irvine

September 12, 2026 | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

LOS ANGELES – No. 2 USC Men's Water Polo continued its perfect start to the season, knocking off No. 13 UC Irvine 24-15 at home Saturday afternoon. The USC offense scored 20 or more goals for the fifth time out of seven games to kick off the season.

#2 USC 24, #13 UC Irvine 15
USC took control immediately, scoring the first five goals of the game. The Trojans led 5-2 after the first quarter but UCI cut the deficit to two midway through the second quarter. USC extended the lead back to four and led 11-7 at the break.

The Trojans came out of the locker room firing with Robert López Duart scoring three goals in the first three minutes of the third quarter. USC scored eight goals in the third quarter which put them up eight going into the fourth. They continued the offensive output to claim a 24-15 victory.

López Duart paced the Trojans with four goals, continuing his streak of mutli-goal games in every game this season. Strahinja Krstic, Apostolos Geogaras and Marc Angelescu each added a hat trick.

Scoring: López Duart (4), Krstic (3), Geogaras (3), Angelescu (3), Anderson (2), Conant (2), Nelson (2), Kocur, Jerkovic, Senciac, Naipoglu, Whitehead

Saves: Mills (6), Harris (2)

Notables:

Marc Angelescu went a perfect 3-for-3 in his Uytengsu Aquatics Center debut.
The Trojans are 88-23 all-time against UC Irvine and have won the past 40 games.
Apostolos Georgaras led the way with seven points on three goals and four assists.
Zach Bettino and Taj Whitehead each chipped in five assists for new career highs.
Strahinja Krstic has scored a hat trick in six of the seven games this season.
12 different field players scored for the Trojans with seven having multi-goal games.
USC has not trailed in six straight games.

Up Next: The Trojans will face a big test as they head north for the 2026 Overnght MPSF Invitational. The annual tournament will be hosted by Stanford and will run from Sept. 18-20 where teams will each play four total games.