In the battle of Los Angeles, two of the top water polo teams in the country in the No. 2 UCLA Bruins and the No. 3 USC Trojans went at it at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center, where the Bruins came out victorious 13-10. The game was a heated battle, which saw the referees leave their whistles in the pocket for the first half.
“I think we stepped away from our basic plan, creating a shooting opportunity on a post up,” USC head coach Marko Pintaric said postgame. “For some reason, we stepped away… because they gave us, really, a lead, and we were up by two because we had a good shooting day.”
The first period of play was what every fan expected, a ferocious and physical rivalry with few good opportunities on either side of the pool. It was graduate center defender Aaron Voggenthaler from the Bruins who opened up the scoring, however, before USC’s sophomore driver Robert López Duart and junior driver Evan Ausmus followed in the final two minutes of the first period to put the Trojans up 2-1. UCLA pulled its goalie with little time left in the period and found the back of the net with under a second to go to tie up the game heading into the second frame.
Unlike the first, the second period was a scoring barrage on both sides of the ball. USC found the back of the net five times — twice courtesy of López Duart, one from fifth-year driver and captain Carson Kranz, one from sophomore utility Stefan Brankovic and one from sophomore driver Zach Bettino. The teams traded blows before, finally, the whistle blew to send both teams into their corner for halftime.
The third period was not anything Trojan fans had seen from their squad this year, as the Bruins purely dominated for a full eight minutes, and the Trojans fell behind 11-8. All UCLA had to do, then, was hold its lead in the final frame which the Bruins did despite goals from López Duart and Bettino.
López Duart — a transfer from Long Beach State — showed why he is a part of the Cutino Award Watch List with four goals in the game. He and UCLA freshman attacker Ryder Dodd both took over the game as both seemed to try and one-up the other and single-handedly win it for their team. Dodd finished with a hat trick and was the main reason for the shift in momentum for the Bruins, scoring three in a row and moving the score from a 5-6 UCLA deficit to an 8-7 Bruin advantage by himself.
Both sides of the pool were packed with fans, half from USC and the other half from UCLA.
“I played in Europe and everything and it is nothing like that,” said López Duart. “Uytengsu is something special. It’s like another level.”
After the tough loss, USC will look to gather themselves against UC Davis on October 26 at noon.