USC faces tough road test in Colorado
The USC women’s soccer team looks to bounce back from a tough loss last Friday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as they head to Boulder to face Colorado on Friday, Oct. 25 at 1 p.m. and to Salt Lake City to take on Utah on Sunday, Oct. 27 at noon.
Stalled · USC sophomore midfielder Natalie Donaldson and the rest of the team’s offense has mustered only four goals in the past seven matches. – Ralf Cheung | Daily Trojan
The Women of Troy (6-7-2, 1-4-1 Pac-12) suffered a tough 3-2 loss in overtime at the Coliseum against Arizona (7-5-3, 2-4-0 Pac-12). After the Wildcats jumped out to a 2-0 lead with 12 minutes remaining, USC got two goals from sophomore defender Marlee Carrillo to send the game into overtime. Just when it seemed like USC had taken all of the momentum, Arizona used a strong offensive push and some questionable officiating calls to set up a free kick for the Wildcats’ Jazmin Ponce. Ponce curved a shot to the top far right corner and put it in the back of the net to give Arizona a 3-2 win, despite junior goalkeeper Caroline Stanley getting her hand on it.
“It’s something that we’re going to need to overcome here in a hurry and try and get our act together,” USC head coach Ali Khosroshahin said after last week’s loss. “We’re at that point in the season where some of the kids that have been carrying a lot of the weight need some time off. We’ll be able to get some people some rest and get people prepared for [this] weekend.”
Freshman midfielder Kayla Mills is the team’s points leader with 13 (3 goals, 7 assists). Senior forward Elizabeth Eddy leads the Women of Troy with five goals, and sophomore forward Katie Johnson has added four of her own.
The late-game surge could provide an offensive spark for USC, which has been unable to consistently achieve the kind of offensive success they had early in the season. The team scored 12 goals in their first three games and put up five goals against Loyola Marymount on Sept. 15, its most since scoring five against California on Oct. 10, 2010. The Women of Troy scored more than one goal in a game for the first time since a 2-0 win at home against Florida Atlantic on Sept. 19.
“We’re just moving on, ready to go, making the next step towards what we need to do in order to succeed and win and do well this season,” Carrillo said.
Colorado (11-3-1, 3-2-1 Pac-12) is led by Anne Stuller (eight goals, six assists) and Brie Hooks (seven goals, one assist), while goalkeeper Annie Brunner has a .780 save percentage and eight shutouts on the season. The Buffaloes are returning from a road trip to Washington, where they lost 3-0 to Washington State, but beat Washington 1-0 in overtime. Colorado also played Cal to a 1-1 draw after the Washington trip.
Utah (7-3-5, 3-2-1 Pac-12) is coming off a 1-0 loss to No. 10 Stanford. Their offense is led by Katie Taylor’s five goals and three assists, while goalkeeper Lindsey Luke has compiled a .903 save percentage on the season.
Both Colorado and Utah are outscoring their opponents 24-11 on the season. USC is outscoring their opponents 25-18 and outshooting them 246-145.
The Women of Troy are 3-1 all-time against the Buffaloes and 4-1 all-time against the Utes. USC lost to Colorado 1-0 in double overtime last season, and beat Utah 1-0.