Unbeaten USC gearing up to host Pacific

After starting the season with three wins — including a 2-1 victory over then-No. 9 Notre Dame — and a tie in four road games, the USC women’s soccer team returned to Los Angeles last Friday, Sept. 5 for its first home game of the season at McAlister Field against UC Riverside (2-1-1).

 

In a triumphant homecoming, USC’s offense exploded en route to an 8-1 victory. The game featured two hat tricks for the Women of Troy from junior midfielder Jamie Fink and senior midfielder Alex Quincey, and a memorable long-distance goal from junior forward Megan Borman.

The dual hat tricks by Fink and Quincey mark the first time in program history that two players have scored three goals each in the same game. The game was especially meaningful for Quincey, who played for UC Riverside before transferring to USC in her sophomore year.

“Coming off two great wins on the road, everyone on the team was excited to finally play at home, in front of the home crowd,” Quincey said. “To have two hat tricks and win 8-1 was a great way to come out and put on a show for the home crowd.”

The win marked the first home victory at USC for head coach Keidane McAlpine, who was hired from Washington State this past offseason and has the Women of Troy off to their best start since 2000, a year in which the program began the season 5-0.

With the home opener in the books, the Women of Troy now turn their focus toward another matchup at McAlister Field this Friday against the Pacific Tigers before heading to UC Irvine for a Sunday night showdown with the Anteaters. Both teams currently sit at 2-4, although UC Irvine has played some stiff competition thus far in Santa Clara, UCLA and Auburn, all road games.

With no game played this past Sunday, the Women of Troy will enter Friday’s game having had a full week off. The extra time off should allow for any ailments to heal up.

“Rest is big,” McAlpine said. “You need to make sure you properly balance the rest and training in order to keep a high level throughout an entire season. Having an extra day or two will help to keep our bodies fresh and our minds focused.”

Though the team was able to take a couple days off this week, on the days in which it did practice, it was business as usual.

“On days we do train, it’s hard and at full tempo,” McAlpine said.

The Women of Troy will look to use these next two games to continue their preparation for the Pac-12 season, which begins for the team on Friday, Sept. 26 at Arizona.

“Every game is preparing us for the Pac-12 Conference,” Fink said. “We are taking every game step-by-step and trying to improve and progress.”

Though the Women of Troy have progressed very well thus far, the team knows that it is still far from where it wants to be. Their goal for this weekend is clear: to shut out the opponent for an entire game.

“We have definitely been focusing more on attacking in practice,” Fink said. “Our next step will be to focus more on the back line and post a shutout for the entire game.”

This is a statement that Coach McAlpine has echoed as well, as both coach and players alike are aware of the jump in intensity that accompanies the switch from non-conference games to the conference schedule.

Ultimately, the bottom line for the Women of Troy is so far, so good. It is a long season, however, and the team knows that it still has many hurdles to jump if it is to make it back to the NCAA Tournament.

“What’s really been a positive in the games we have played thus far is that we have had a lot of players having success and a lot of players getting minutes,” Quincey said. “Now we need to hunker down and focus on the rest of the season, starting with Pacific on Friday.”

The game against the Tigers is set to kick off at 3 p.m. PDT on Friday at McAlister Field.