Heading into the fourth quarter of a drama-drenched championship, the livestream camera zoomed in on the huddle of the USC women’s water polo team.
To find the Trojans dancing.
“That,” attacker Maggie Johnson said, “just encapsulates what our team is.”
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Joy has been the operative word for a team that has taken it to a new extreme.
Beating California, 10-9, on Sunday at the Canyonview Aquatic Center in La Jolla gave USC its eighth national championship in the sport and first under third-year coach Casey Moon.
Moon’s first two seasons had ended in heartache, the Trojans losing in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament one year and the championship the next. The coach told his players he would do everything he could to make sure they didn’t experience that feeling again.
But the former longtime USC assistant coach never strayed from his belief that his team should always enjoy what it’s doing.
“I think fun would be the defining word of this team,” goalie Anna Reed said. “I don’t know how else anybody would get through this if you weren’t having fun, but I think our team does it really to the max.”
Staging dance parties in the locker room and poolside is just part of the lighthearted approach. Reed even laughed through a glitchy WiFi connection during her Zoom with reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s constant, constant fun and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Reed, who made a career-high 14 saves during the victory over the Golden Bears. “We’re really unserious, and I think it helped us a lot this year – and especially throughout the tournament. Like, we’re cracking jokes the whole time, we’re making fun of each other, we keep it light so that nobody really gets in their head.”
That’s not to say the Trojans don’t lock in when necessary.
To reach the championship, they had to beat rival UCLA – which had handed the Trojans their only two losses of the regular season.
“That Bruin team is great – great coach, great personnel,” said Moon, whose third-seeded team prevailed over second-seeded UCLA, 11-10, in a semifinal. “But when it mattered, our six versus their six, [we] were better and I think it was just kind of this connectivity. It’s the aspect of family and we really, really are sisters together and I think that is what really gave us the ability to elevate and beat a great team in UCLA.”
Never trailing in the championship, the Trojans held off every challenge from fourth-seeded Cal. Leading by just one goal entering the fourth quarter couldn’t prevent them from dancing in the huddle on the way to providing their six seniors a joyous sendoff.
“In that moment, it’s like, oh my god, this is what it’s all about and this is what it’s for and this is what our hard work has all led to,” Reed said when asked how she felt the moment the game was over. “It’s a really surreal feeling.”
And just another reason to dance.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
