{"id":405046,"date":"2019-12-05T03:40:22","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T10:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=405046"},"modified":"2019-12-06T08:45:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T15:45:14","slug":"defending-champion-trojans-on-familiar-ground-as-they-seek-yet-another-ncaa-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/defending-champion-trojans-on-familiar-ground-as-they-seek-yet-another-ncaa-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Champion Trojans on Familiar Ground as They Seek Another NCAA Men’s Water Polo Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

2019 has been a challenging season for the USC men\u2019s water polo program, the defending national champions. With a new head coach \u2014 and missing key members from what is typically one of the country’s strongest rosters \u2014 the Trojans struggled early and looked to be out of the picture for a 15th-straight NCAA appearance. But a late surge that included back-to-back wins against the nation’s #1 teams put USC back where they always seem to belong: in NCAAs. The fourth-seeded Trojans (14-5) open the defense of their title on Thursday at 1 p.m. (PST) against Bucknell and are as likely as anyone to win it all this year.<\/p>\n

But, it won’t be easy. Nothing this season has.<\/p>\n

\"2019-NCAA\"The transition<\/a> from Jovan Vavic<\/strong>, winningest coach in NCAA polo history, to Marko Pintaric<\/strong>, who for the previous 18 years had been Vavic\u2019s trusted assistant, was not smooth. The Trojans dropped four of their first 13 matches \u2014 the worst early season record for USC since 2001. That included losses to Golden Coast Conference foes Pacific, Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara. It was the first time the Waves had beaten the Trojans in 24 years; for the Gauchos it had been three decades since they\u2019d gotten a win over SC. Pacific beat their former Mountain Pacific Sports Federation foe twice in a season for the first time ever.<\/p>\n

[There\u2019s a LOT to Look Forward to at the 2019 NCAA Men\u2019s Water Polo Championship<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n

Sitting at 9-4 just before the start of MPSF conference play, the Trojans were staring at a season where they not only missed playing in a 15th-straight NCAA final, but were entirely out of the national championship picture. Pintaric’s major problem has been an inabiity to field a complete squad. Marko Vavic<\/strong> and his brother Stefan have been sidelined for the entire season. There has been no confirmation as to why Jovan\u2019s two sons have remained glued to the bench, but there\u2019s no question that losing a national team player like Marko \u2014 who during his two years in Troy has 108 goals \u2014 has been significant. His brother Stefan was a skilled freshman who could have provided much-needed depth.<\/p>\n

\"December

Marko Vavic has lost an entire season. Photo Courtesy: Catharyn Hayne<\/p><\/div>\n

With these obstacles weighing them down, the the Trojans’ MPSF opener on November 2nd against top-ranked Stanford potentially spelled disaster. But, it became a signature win in a stirring run of success against conference foes. The 9-8 win at Uytengsu Aquatics Center saw USC hold Ben Hallock<\/strong>, 2019 MPSF Player of Year \u2014 as well as the 2018 Cutino Award winner \u2014 to a single score. Pintaric’s team got a hat-trick from Marin Dasic<\/strong> and a career-high 20 saves from goalie Nic Porter<\/strong> in beating the Cardinal for the third straight time. It launched a three-match sprint through the conference regular season; USC beat arch-rival UCLA the following weekend and then completed the MPSF sweep with a narrow win over Cal. This made the Trojans top seed in their conference tournament; they stumbled against Cal but again beat UCLA, this time in the MPSF third-place match. Which got them \u2014 and not the Bruins \u2014 to NCAAs as an at-large team.<\/p>\n

[Pacific, Not UCLA, in as At-Large Team for 2019 NCAA Men\u2019s Water Polo Tournament<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n

Now they face a Bucknell team traveling West for NCAAs for the first time since 1985, when the Bison made the tournament as an at-large team and finished seventh. These two teams have not met since 2009 when the Trojans won 21-4. USC also won the previous three meetings, with the most competitive contest coming in 2004, a 14-3 victory.<\/p>\n

Bucknell (23-8), coached by John McBride<\/strong>, has already claimed an NCAA win, taking down<\/a> undefeated Harvard 13-12 last Saturday behind six goals from Rade Joksimovic<\/strong>, a hat-trick by Logan Schofield<\/strong> and a determined defensive effort that held Dennis Blyachov<\/strong> and Austin Sechrest<\/strong>, the Crimson\u2019s two All-Americans, to three scores. Thursday’s contest will be held at University of Pacific\u2019s Chris Kjeldsen Pool in Stockton, California. Click here<\/a> for a live-stream of the match.<\/p>\n

\"rade-bucknell-dec19\"

Bucknell’s Rade Joksimovic. One of the East’s best of all time. Photo Courtesy: Rob Dolan<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite the absence of the Vavic brothers, USC has more than enough depth to make a run to yet another championship match, which would extend the Trojans\u2019 remarkable streak of appearances in NCAA finals. First, they\u2019ll have to get past an opportunistic Bison squad that features Joksimovic, one of the most dynamic players in the East. With a career total of 526 goals \u2014 good for second all-time in the Bucknell record books behind Scott Schulte\u2019s<\/strong> NCAA record of 586 \u2014 there\u2019s simply no one in the country who has been as prolific as the senior from Serbia.<\/p>\n

[Bucknell Men\u2019s Water Polo Head Coach John McBride on Winning the East in 2019<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n

If USC advances, they will meet top seed Stanford on Saturday in one of two semifinals. A win against the Cardinal will advance the Trojans to yet another championship match, where they will look to capture an 11th title \u2014 and the first of Coach Pintaric\u2019s career as head coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2019 has been a challenging season for the USC men\u2019s water polo program, the defending national champions. With a new head coach \u2014 and missing key members from what is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":333463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[71214,47734,43237,119168,63463,2763,72414,109708,378,62606,60192,251,71291,63320,18640,58073,328,54416],"class_list":["post-405046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-water-polo","tag-austin-sechrest","tag-ben-hallock","tag-bucknell","tag-dennis-blyachov","tag-john-mcbride","tag-jovan-vavic","tag-logan-schofield","tag-marin-dasic","tag-marko-pintaric","tag-marko-vavic","tag-michael-randazzo","tag-ncaa","tag-nic-porter","tag-rade-joksimovic","tag-scott-schulte","tag-trojans","tag-usc","tag-water-polo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nDefending Champion Trojans on Familiar Ground as They Seek Another NCAA Men's Water Polo Title - Swimming World<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This season has been challenging for USC men\u2019s water polo, defending NCAA champions. 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