No. 3 USC hits the road for a pair of matches


The No. 3-ranked Women of Troy will hit the road this weekend to take on No. 17 LMU in a conference match on Saturday before heading up north to play CSU Bakersfield in an MPSF clash on Sunday.

Neither the Lions (15-9) nor the Roadrunners (12-11, 0-2 MPSF) have ever defeated a USC team.

The program is 25-0 all-time against Loyola Marymount, while it’s 11-0 all-time against CSU Bakersfield.

This will be the Women of Troy’s first meeting with LMU this season after defeating them 14-5 last April.

The Lions will be coming off a pair of Golden Coast Conference matches against Azusa Pacific and Fresno Pacific.

LMU defetaed Azusa Pacific 16-7 on Thursday.

On the other hand, USC went on an offensive explosion earlier this season in January against CSU Baskersfield on their way to a 33-5 route.

This weekend’s slate of games will be USC’s first competition since the team’s spring break trip to Hawaii,  where they came home with two commanding wins.

While away from the mainland, the Women of Troy  (17-2, 1-1 MPSF) dominated Pomona-Pitzer by a score of 22-3. Senior Monica Vavic continued her scoring tear since becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer by netting a team-high five goals in the match, upping her career total to 264.

The team would use the momentum from that game to power past No. 7 Hawai’i by a score of 10-1.

The stifling USC defense against the Rainbow Wahine was led by freshman goalie Victoria Chamorro, who posted eight saves in the win.

In fact, the Women of Troy held their host scoreless for the last 11 minutes of play.

The Women of Troy currently lead the MPSF on both sides of the ball, offense and defensive respectively.

The conference’s number one offense is currently averaging just under 18 goals per game, while the team is giving up about four goals per game.

This dominance on both offense and defense is apparent from the fact that USC has outscored its opponents this season by more than four times, 338-80.

Having the best program’s top scorer in Vavic, who has tallied 73 goals to date this season, definitely helps, but she has had a lot of help along the way,

Sophomore Stephania Haralabidis follows Vavic on the team’s scoring sheet with 47 goals thus far. Her twin sister, Ioanna is next in line with 35 goals.

The Women of Troy will likely have to put their defensive caps on to stop a trio of established scoring threats they will be facing this weekend.

LMU’s top returning scorer in  junior Ivana Castro has posted an impressive 55 goals for the Lions this season.

For CSU Bakersfield, the duo of sophomores Kristen Jensen and Nicola Barrett lead the team with 40 goals each.

Both Saturday’s clash against LMU and Sunday’s matchup with the Roadrunners of Cal State Bakersfield are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

1 reply
  1. Steve B.
    Steve B. says:

    The sport is not mentioned in the headline or in the article. The Women of Troy is used for all their sport programs.
    Finally noticed the words Water Polo in light small print under the writer’s name at top.

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