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Water Polo Hosts Defending National Champs, No. 1 USC

by thesundevils.com
Apr 6, 2022

TEMPE, Ariz. – A week after taking No. 2 UCLA into overtime in Los Angeles, Sun Devil Water Polo (13-10, 1-3) returns home to host No. 1 USC (15-2, 4-0) for an MPSF conference matchup. The game is set to kick off on Saturday, April 9 at 1:00 pm MST and will be streamed via the Arizona State Live Stream here. The Sun Devils remained at No. 9 in this week's Collegiate Water Polo Association women's varsity polls.

Vanda Baksa was the lead scorer in last weekend's matchup against the Bruins, and picked up her fourth MPSF/KAP7 Newcomer of the Week honor of the season as the Sun Devils almost pulled off an all-time upset. The Sun Devils held the Bruins to just two goals in the first half, but a second half push from the conference foe was enough to push the game into OT as the Sun Devils eventually fell 9-11.


The top-ranked opposition is bringing the reigning MPSF Player of the Week, Mireia Guiral to town after taking down No. 1 Stanford last weekend and breaking the 10 game win streak for the Cardinal. The Trojans have consistently stayed top three in the CWPA rankings after winning last season's National Championship. They followed their road trip with an 18-5 win at San Jose State to stay perfect in MPSF play.

This is the Sun Devils's first time facing the Trojans this season after most recently losing 4-10 in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament last season and finishing the season in third place. Last season as a whole, ASU faced USC a total of six times and held them to one of their lowest scoring games of the season in the 5-6 loss. 

All-time, ASU holds two wins against the Trojans, most recently coming in 2008. USC is the third straight team that the Sun Devils will face that is home to 2020 Gold Medalists. This is the second to last game before the regular season concludes, where the Sun Devils will later play in the Trojan's home pool for the MPSF Conference Championship Tournament.

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