USC’s Eddy and de Lyra each earn MPSF honors


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After a narrow overtime loss to No. 5 Northwestern, two Women of Troy were honored with Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week honors.

Senior defender Elizabeth Eddy and junior attacker Caroline de Lyra were named the defensive and offensive players of the week, respectively.

Eddy enters her final season at USC, coming off of a junior season in which she had 17 ground balls, fifth on the team, eight draw controls and seven caused turnovers. Eddy even scored a goal against San Diego State.

With the honor, Eddy has become the first USC female student-athlete to win conference player of the week honors in two different sports. Eddy is a  forward/midfielder on the women’s soccer team and was recognized with the Pac-12 Women’s Soccer Player of the Week for the week of Aug. 26, 2013.

De Lyra comes off of a sophomore campaign that earned her a spot on the MPSF All-Conference First Team. She led the team in points and assists, with 49 and 28, respectively. Her award is USC’s first-ever offensive weekly award.

In USC’s season opener against Northwestern, de Lyra scored four points and had one assist. She also forced a turnover during USC’s opening 7-0 drive. The 7-0 run against the Wildcats is USC’s largest ever against a ranked opponent.

On defense, Eddy stood out for her three forced turnovers, three ground balls and one draw control.

Though they did not win honors themselves, seven different Women of Troy scored. Junior midfielder Amanda Johansen scored two, and Kaila Sommi, Kylie Drexel, Cynthia Del Core, Caroline Cordrey and Shannon Nugent each had one.

Freshman goalie Gussie Johns became the second goalie in program history to start in her first collegiate game, following Liz Shaeffer who started in 2013. Johns led the team with five ground balls in the loss.

The loss to Northwestern is the second to the team in two seasons, as the Women of Troy lost to the Wildcats last season, 12-7. The overtime loss was USC’s                           third-ever overtime game, all of which have resulted in losses. USC falls to 0-3 in the all time series against Northwestern.

USC had the lead until the final 37 seconds of regulation, until the Wildcats surged back to take the game into overtime. Northwestern scored just 53 seconds into overtime and maintained possession to run the clock out and seal the victory.

The Women of Troy open the 2015 season after finishing 9-9 overall in 2014, going 6-3 in conference. They were knocked out of the MPSF Tournament with a 7-6 loss to Oregon in the quarterfinals.

The Women of Troy have a week of rest before they head east to face Stony Brook and Marist on Feb. 20 and 22, respectively.