Women’s soccer rides success to Oregon

The Trojans head to Oregon with one goal in mind — keep the ball rolling.

The team is 7-2, riding high off of a seven-game shutout streak and a series of high-scoring victories. With one conference game under their belt, head coach Keidane McAlpine feels that his team — which is ranked No. 9 in the NCAA — is right where they need to be.

“They’re starting to find a rhythm and an identity as a unit,” McAlpine said. “You’re seeing that in practice, in games, whenever they’re on the field together. It’s starting to click.”

So far this season, the key to success has come from the backline. The team broke the school record for consecutive shutouts after defeating Arizona 4-0 last week, notching their seventh in a row.

A major part of that has been two veteran players — redshirt senior goalkeeper Sammy Jo Prudhomme and senior defender Mandy Freeman. Both have racked up accolades throughout this season as they guided a young backline into the season. Prudhomme earned the ESPNW Player of the Week Award earlier in the month after blocking 17 shots in a weekend tournament in Alabama.

And this week, Freeman was named the Pac-12 Defender of the Week for her stifling performance against Arizona. The backline stopped 15 shot opportunities — 12 of which came in the second half — in order to keep a clean sheet. The performance exhibited a style of play and leadership that McAlpine feels is critical for his team to continue winning.

“The attention to detail is critical,” McAlpine said. “They bought into putting in the work and being diligent. The backline’s cohesion is really starting to come together, game to game.”

The defense’s success wouldn’t be possible, however, without the offense. The attacking front has transformed completely from last year, when the Trojans struggled to finish in the box and sometimes lost games that they controlled for most of the 90 minutes of play. This season, nine players have found the back of the net, with redshirt junior Alex Anthony leading the pack with five goals.

This is partially due to new personnel. After sitting out last season with an injury, redshirt senior Katie Johnson has come back with a passion, notching three goals in the first nine games of the season. And transfers like Anthony and Leah Pruitt are allowing for a new style of fast-paced play that puts opponents on their heels and allows the Trojans to take control of the tempo.

“We have more players who are good with wearing the pressure of scoring goals,” McAlpine said. “That means the rest of the team is a little more relaxed when they’re taking chances and finishing in box. We just have more personalities that are willing to accept being the goal scorer.”

That doesn’t mean he’s satisfied with where the team is at. After a dominant showing against the University of North Carolina, McAlpine feels that his team has struggled to piece together full games where they are in sync with one another. Though 15 to 20 minute spurts of cohesive play have resulted in a big payoff against unranked teams, McAlpine is aware that his unit will need to find their rhythm and stick with it as they continue with conference games.

Traveling to Oregon this weekend will give the Trojans two more Pac-12 challenges, starting with Oregon on Friday. The Ducks entered the season ranked No. 25, but since then has dropped out of the top rankings. Still, the team has only dropped one home game so far, partially due to playing on a turf field that switches up the style of play for many opponents.

Sunday’s game against Oregon State is expected to be slightly easier to handle — the team is 5-3-2 on the season and will be fresh off of a game against No. 11 UCLA just two days before. But the weekend will be important for the Trojans as they prepare for the following weekend’s matchups against No. 1 Stanford and No. 17 California. If the Trojans have any more last-minute fine tuning to do, it will happen in Eugene.