STANFORD, Calif. — Freshman Ryder Dodd scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the closing seconds of the third quarter, to help No. 1 seed UCLA beat USC 11-8 Sunday at Stanford to win the men’s national water polo title.
The Bruins (26-2) won their 13th national title in the sport, and five of those have come under coach Adam Wright, beating rival USC each time.
Dodd’s second goal came on a power play and gave UCLA a one-goal lead with 49 seconds left in the third quarter. Jack Larsen scored a goal to make it 8-6 about 2½ minutes into the fourth and added another to cap the scoring in the closing seconds.
Robert Lopez Duart and Andrej Grgurevic each scored two goals for second-seeded USC (23-6).
Dodd, who made his Olympic debut this year as the youngest member of Team USA and scored eight goals to help his team win bronze, scored a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation single-season record 102 goals, breaking the mark of 101 set by Ryan Bailey of UC Irvine in 1998.
USC has lost in each of its past four trips to the championship game. The Trojans also lost to UCLA, 7-6, in 2020 before losing 13-12 to California in both ’21 and ’22. Cal beat the Bruins 13-11 last season to win its third consecutive national title.