The Trojan momentum had stalled with just under two minutes remaining in the third quarter of Wednesday’s men’s water polo matchup between No. 3 USC and No. 7 Princeton at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
The score was deadlocked at five after Princeton tied it up two minutes prior. USC hadn’t scored in over four minutes of play.
Fifth-year driver Carson Kranz passed the ball back and forth three times to the right wing before dishing to redshirt junior 2-meter Jack Martin who tossed a behind-the-back goal to give USC its lead back.
Following Kranz’s spark, USC would score four more goals unanswered — including a second-half hat trick from junior utility Andrej Grgurevic — to take a commanding 10-5 lead with four minutes left in the fourth quarter.
While a late Tiger rally narrowed the gap, the home team ultimately took the win, 10-7, to improve to 15-2. The win over 15-7 Princeton was the Trojans’ 10th win against top-20 teams this season.
“Princeton is a very tough team … They play very disciplined water polo, they’re covered in every position with a good goalie,” USC head coach Marko Pintaric said postgame. “When you play this type of team, you just have to stay calm and play ‘til the end and the guys pretty much did that and won the game in the third and fourth quarter.”
The first four minutes of the game were a battle of the goalies. USC redshirt sophomore Bernardo Herzer and Princeton sophomore Kristóf Kovács blocked multiple shots each before fifth-year 2-meter Max Miller scored on a behind-the-back shot to put the Trojans up 1-0.
A Tiger goal would even the score before junior driver Jack Vort’s netted shot sent the Trojans to the second quarter up 2-1.
Another save from Herzer sparked a possession that Kranz finished with a goal early in the second period. Two more stops from Herzer were not enough to stall a hot Tiger offense that evened the score at three 20 seconds before the half.
The teams traded goals early in the second half and again midway through the third quarter before Martin’s goal sparked USC’s 5-0 run.
Grgurevic — who scored three of the five goals in the run — said strong goalie play from Princeton’s Kovács forced the Trojans to adjust their attacking style.
“[In the first half,] we were missing shots and really not placing it where we were talked about before the game,” Grgurevic said. “[During the 5-0 run,] it was really adapting and changing, using the switch wrist and beating [Kovács] on the cross cage, which really started working towards the end.”
Pintaric said strong play from Herzer — who ended the night with nine saves on 16 attempts — contributed to the win.
“[Herzer] had a more than 50% save percentage,” Pintaric said. “When your goalie does that, you have a good chance to win a game.”
Next up for USC is No. 2 UCLA (16-1), who topped the Trojans 12-9 on September 22. The teams will meet in the pool Saturday at 1 p.m. at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
“Princeton plays a similar type of water polo as UCLA, so this game was really a good transition into the game on Saturday,” Pintaric said. “We’re just going to adjust the matchups for UCLA, who is very, very deep and we’re going to try to execute our game plan.”