Other sports can shine as football hits its bye week
As the panic of a weekend without USC football begins to set in, remember that even though it may not seem like it, there’s more to life than what happens in the Coliseum on Saturdays. If you are like me, you might even be glad there’s no football game this weekend. It allows you to rest up after coming out of what is the most terrifying time of any semester — midterm season.
Even though USC’s team isn’t playing this week, if you must satiate your hunger for the gridiron, there are plenty of other games to watch, including No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 6 Texas A&M or No. 17 Arkansas vs. No. 21 Auburn.
Beyond the college football world, however, this break gives other USC sports a chance to shine. The other three major fall sports — women’s volleyball, women’s soccer and men’s water polo — are all nationally ranked and definite national title contenders.
If for no other reason, there are more incentives to go to the non-revenue sports than the football games. I’ve been attending football games for three years, and two weeks ago I caught my first t-shirt that they launched into the crowd.
If you are one of the first 100 students to go to the women’s soccer game on Thursday, you get a pair of USC socks. These incentives are unfortunately what is needed to be provided in order for most of the people I know to feel like it’s a game worth attending.
Women’s soccer is an extremely popular sport in the United States (for good reason) and the USC team is exciting to watch and dominating at their level of competition. The Women of Troy (11-3) are ranked No. 5 in the country and leave no doubt with their victories.
All 11 of the team’s wins have come by two or more goals and they have held their opponents scoreless on 10 occasions. As someone who isn’t a soccer fan, I still find those numbers incredibly exciting
USC players have earned weekly conference honors six times and the team isn’t slowing down anytime soon, continually expressing how driven it is to win a national title this year. Women’s soccer isn’t the only sport that has its eyes on the prize this fall, though.
Maybe land sports aren’t your thing and that’s fine, too. The men’s water polo team probably deserves the most publicity of any team given their historic and consistent domination of the competition.
The second-best team in the country, the Trojans have lost only once this season. Sitting at 15-1, it would be easy to assume that their opponents have been cupcake teams, but that isn’t the case. The Trojans haven’t yet had to face their biggest rival, defending national champion top-ranked UCLA, but they have played (and defeated) six teams that were ranked in the top-20 when they played them.
This impressive statistic includes five wins over teams in the top 10. In addition to their spectacular team success, there have been five weekly Pac-12 awards given to USC players.
The women’s volleyball team has one of the most dynamic young players in the conference in freshman outside hitter Khalia Lanier who just this week was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. Ranked No. 25 in the country, the team has suffered some disappointing losses this year, but hosts two critical matches this weekend as they face Cal on Thursday night and No. 14 Stanford on Sunday. The Women of Troy have defeated five ranked teams this season proving there is always the chance for an exciting upset.
Even though the football season is back on the right track, no one should expect to see the team ranked anywhere near the top 10 before the end of the season. The other teams representing USC, however, are on track to add to our already impressive collection of national titles. So if you want to see a truly successful team, check out a sporting event outside of the Coliseum.
Hailey Tucker is a junior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism. She is also the sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Her column, “Tucker Talks,” runs Thursdays.