 |
 |
Sept. 1, 2010
THIS WEEK
The back-to-back NCAA champs kick off the 2010 season with a dip into action at the UCI Invitational in Irvine, Calif., this weekend. The Trojans have a pair of official games on tap to go along with a few three-quarter scrimmages. USC's first official game of the year puts the Trojans up against Redlands in a match at 9:10 a.m. on Saturday (Sept. 4) at UC Irvine's Anteater Pool. Later that afternoon, USC will scrimmage UC Irvine at 4:10 p.m. On Sunday (Sept. 5), USC again kick-starts the day with an official game against Whittier at 9:10 a.m. The rest of the afternoon will include a 12:40 p.m. scrimmage against Stanford and a 6:10 p.m. scrimmage against Long Beach State.
RANKINGS
USC has been slated at No. 4 in the nation to start out the 2010 season after coming off NCAA titles in 2008 and 2009. Neither Redlands nor Whittier are ranked in the national preseason poll. USC's scrimmage foes this week are ranked, however, with UC Irvine at No. 5, Stanford at No. 3 and Long Beach State at No. 9.
BACK IN ACTION
USC returns three players who boast NCAA title-winning experience. All three juniors have known nothing but national championship runs in their time as Trojans. All-American goalie Joel Dennerley also has fellow All-American Peter Kurzeka and their fellow junior Matt Burton back as the backbone of USC roster. It's a young group, but this year's batch of Trojans have already experience USC's winning tradition. Including junior two-time NCAA champs Burton, Dennerley and Kurzeka, USC has Brian Boswell and Michael Rosenthal returning from the Trojans' latest NCAA visit. Goalie Will Simon and field players Zayne Belal, Billy Evashwick, Mason Hawthorne, Forest Monroe, Jon Leopold and Andrew Reego also saw game action in the 2009 regular season and are back in the water for 2010.
|
|
 |
SUPER UNKNOWNS
Opponents will get to know USC's newest Trojans pretty quickly. A set of powerful imports are set to make a splash, as Australians Jeremy Davie and Mace Rapsey are joined by Croatian Ivan Kustic and German Tobias Preuss for their first seasons as Trojans. Cem Carak hails from Turkey and is back from a redshirt season last year. Meanwhile, USC has a powerful blend of true and redshirt freshmen welcomed into the fold. Andy Hayes, Tommy Friedrich and Stephen Siri all redshirted the 2009 season to build up power for 2010. That crew will be joined by more true freshmen out of the USA -- Rex Butler, Max Hurst-Mendoza, Zach Lucas, Jack Plaga, Nikola Vavic and Connor Virjee -- to round of the capped-up talent for USC in 2010.
SENIOR SEND-OFF
USC graduated a large group from last year's NCAA championship squad, eight of whom were members of both USC's title-winning rosters. Those departed 2009 seniors are: Anthony Artukovich, Shea Buckner, J.W. Krumpholz, Justin Rappel, Matt Sagehorn, Nico Sardo, Kyle Sterling and Jordan Thompson.
2009 RECAP
The 2009 Trojans claimed back-to-back national championships for the first time in program history with a 7-6 win over UCLA in last season's NCAA title match. The Trojans also made history as the first team ever to make five straight NCAA final appearances on the way to wrapping up the year as champs with a 26-2 overall record. It was USC's 24th NCAA appearance and fifth national championship. Jovan Vavic was named the National Coach of the Year, and senior J.W. Krumpholz was the National Player of the Year as well as the eventual Cutino Award winner for the second straight year. Eight Trojans earned All-American honors, and 19 different players scored on the year. For the fifth straight year, USC led the nation in team defense (5.5 gapg), while the offense averaged 11.3 gpg. All told, USC outscored its opponents 316-154 in 2009.
