Courtesy: USC Athletics
LOS ANGELES – The No. 1-ranked USC men’s water polo team (18-2) won its fifth straight game with a 22-13 victory over No. 10 UC Santa Barbara (16-13) at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Saturday, Nov. 8. The win moves the Trojans to 6-0 in home water with just next week’s regular-season finale against crosstown rival UCLA still to be played.
Fourteen different Trojans scored goals in the win led by hat tricks from junior Robert Lopez Duart and senior Jack Vort. López Duart logged his 20th game with a goal and his team-leading 14th with multiple goals. Vort scored in his ninth game and logged his sixth multi-goal game.
Freshmen Gavin Conant, Efe Naipoglu, and Strahinja Krstic and senior Mihailo Vukazic each racked up two goals apiece. Sophomores Ben Mirisch, Taj Whitehead, Chase Landa; juniors Stefan Brankovic and Zach Bettino; and seniors Evan Ausmus, Jack Martin, and Andrej Grgurevic each scored one goal. Bettino totaled four points with a team-high three assists. Grgurevic, Vort, and Brankovic each tallied two assists apiece.
In the cage, sophomore Charles Mills got the start and picked up seven saves against three goals allowed. Junior Bernardo Herzer had a pair of saves in a little over a quarter of play and freshman Nemo Pavoggi had two saves.
For the Gauchos, Brock Zamanian led all players with six goals and two assists to total eight points. Charlie Johnson, Ryan McManigal, and Camren Simoncelli each had two goals.
The Trojans came out and went straight to work to take a dominant 9-3 lead into halftime. USC won the first quarter, 5-1, and got goals from five different shooters. By the midway mark of the game, Krstic, Vort, and López Duart had scored two goals apiece. The rout was on in the third as the Trojans poured in seven goals and later led by as many 11 goals in the fourth at 21-10.
UP NEXT
USC hosts crosstown rival UCLA for its regular-season finale on Saturday (Nov. 15) at Uytengsu Aquatics Center. The game is scheduled for 11 a.m. PT and will be shown live on overnght.com.
