Women’s soccer has streak snapped by Cal
Riding the momentum of a statement victory over top-ranked Stanford, USC women’s soccer welcomed No. 14 Cal to McAlister Field on Sunday looking to claim its fifth win against top-25 opposition this season. The Women of Troy turned heads with its 3-0 shutout of the Cardinal on Thursday, but the Golden Bears took the spoils in a back-and-forth game, scoring a late goal to clinch a 1-0 upset over USC.
Julia Erickson | Daily Trojan
All good things come to an end · Senior Mandy Freeman turns upfield in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Cal, USC’s first defeat since August.
The Women of Troy knew there would be targets on their backs after they took down the Cardinal, and sure enough, Cal arrived determined to stymie their momentum and leapfrog them in the Pac-12 standings. The Bears were the busier team early on, forcing four saves out of redshirt senior goalkeeper Sammy Jo Prudhomme, who has recorded an outstanding eight cleans sheets in 13 games so far this fall.
As they did against Stanford, however, the Women of Troy settled in as the half progressed and began to string more passes together in the attacking third. The first half ended scoreless, but USC threatened in the second period — and it looked as if the Women of Troy might break the deadlock late. Multiple Trojan shots went just wide, and senior Morgan Andrews had an effort cleared off the line with 10 minutes to play.
But the Golden Bears looked to fashion an opportunity on the break, and in the 85th minute, Abigail Kim found herself in a one-on-one opportunity against Prudhomme after a Cal counterattack. The midfielder calmly slotted into the far post to break Trojan hearts and deny Prudhomme another clean sheet, despite the keeper’s 11 saves.
Now the Women of Troy prepare for a road trip to Tempe, Arizona trying to shake off the frustration of Sunday’s loss. Head coach Keidane McAlpine hoped his team would learn from its experience to make adjustments going into next Saturday’s game at Arizona State.
“We had a lapse, and it cost us. It’s a great lesson at this point in the year,” he said. “But there are a lot of games to play. We’ve still got an opportunity to finish toward the top, and that’s going to be the goal: get better in the next game and keep moving forward.”
McAlpine also pointed to USC’s two losses to open the season, which the Women of Troy responded to by winning a program-record 10 consecutive matches.
“Losses sometimes teach you a lot more about yourself [than wins],” he said. “We’ve been fortunate to win some games when we made some mistakes and didn’t play well. Today caught up to us, and now we’ve got to grow again from this one.”
The Women of Troy may no longer be on a record-setting run, but McAlpine urged his players to maintain the same mentality that made them so successful before Sunday’s loss. After all, it’s a long season, and USC remains very much in hunt for the Pac-12 title and an NCAA tournament berth.
“I think the approach to our next games has to be the same,” McAlpine said. “Just try to do the fundamental things that got us where we are and keep going.”
USC will go for a bounce-back win on Saturday. Arizona State is also coming off a split week after playing two games that went into overtime in Washington, as the Sun Devils beat Washington 3-2 on Thursday before falling to Washington State 1-2 on Sunday.