After a powerful first half from USC soccer Sunday night, Trojan fans soon felt a knot of dread in their stomachs as the game began again, fearing an all-too-familiar fate.

Less than five minutes into the second half, with the Trojans leading the game 2-0, No. 15 Iowa (10-3-4, 5-2-3 Big Ten) sophomore forward Berkley Binggeli sank a goal past graduate student goalkeeper Bella Grust and right into the bottom left corner of the net. 

From that point on, USC (7-6-2, 4-5-1) was on the defensive, taking an abysmal two shots the entire second half — neither of which was on goal — compared to the Hawkeyes’ 10. By the end of the night, the scores were 2-2, making four straight games without a Trojan victory.

“We were really good in the first half, and we did some really good things in the second half, but we did let the game slip away a little bit,” Head Coach Jane Alukonis said in an interview with the Daily Trojan on Sunday. 

Before its bout with Iowa, USC hosted Nebraska (8-4-5, 3-4-3) on Thursday night, marking its seventh matchup with the Cornhuskers to date. Going into the game, Nebraska held the all-time record between the two teams, inching over the Trojans by just one win; by the end of the tight game, the Cornhuskers extended that lead with another win, ending the night 3-2.

Nebraska was first on the board Thursday, with Cornhusker junior midfielder Ella Rudney scoring in the 23rd minute. Though the Trojans were able to tie things up before halftime on a goal from senior defender Molly McDougal, they weren’t able to maintain it for long, with Nebraska pulling ahead again mere minutes later. The Cornhuskers scored yet another goal three minutes into the second half — simply too much for the Trojans to recover from.

“We got broken in a couple of the last matches late in the game, sometimes on a set piece or things that require a lot of focus and discipline,” Alukonis said. “Unfortunately, we felt the hard way how it feels to drop a game just on a lack of concentration in some of those moments.”

Prior to Sunday night’s matchup with the Hawkeyes, the Trojans held their annual senior day celebration to honor McDougal, the only senior on this year’s squad. McDougal has played a total of 1,047 minutes this season, making her the team’s fourth most-used player.

After honoring McDougal, USC and Iowa met on the pitch for the first time ever, having faced drastically different trajectories across the season. After earning a preseason No. 5 ranking, the Trojans have since fallen out of the top 25 entirely, while the Hawkeyes have risen up the ranks from preseason No. 13 to claim the very same No. 5 spot before Sunday’s game. 

Iowa made sure to hit hard and fast, starting with a shot by freshman midfielder Liana Tarasco less than two minutes into the game. But, soon, USC was able to adapt to what the Hawkeyes were throwing at it, pushing to the other side of the field until a free kick changed the game.

After a foul from Iowa freshman midfielder Josie Jones, the Trojans were awarded a penalty that junior forward Maribel Flores gladly took. Sixteen minutes into the game, USC had its first goal of the game as Flores sank the ball in the bottom left corner of the goal. 

From then on, Iowa was on the back foot, and for good reason; just five minutes later, after passing back and forth with freshman forward Murphy Walsh, Flores snuck the ball right past Iowa sophomore goalkeeper Fernanda Mayrink’s legs and into the center of the goal.

Flores currently stands as the second-highest scorer in the Big Ten, with nine goals across 10 games. With 1,118 minutes on the field, she’s seen the third-most game time this season among the Trojans. 

“It’s all thanks to my teammates, of course,” Flores said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “They inspire me every day to keep pushing and be better every day, and give me the strength to just keep riding for them until the end. That’s what it’s all about. Because we’re a team, and at the end of the day, we win together and we lose together.”

By the end of the first half, USC had taken double the shots of the Hawkeyes and hadn’t faced a single shot on goal from its opponents. 

However, Iowa came back with a vengeance in the second half, pushing harder against the Trojans’ defense and scoring a goal almost instantly. With blood in the water, the Hawkeyes were on the attack, surpassing their shot count from the first half in just six minutes.

With this new aggressive strategy, the Trojan defense crumpled in the 70th minute, allowing Iowa to score yet again; with assists from senior midfielder Kellen Fife and graduate student forward Kelli McGroarty, freshman forward Morgan Lietz shot straight into the back right corner of the net to tie the game.

From then on, USC’s offense just couldn’t keep up and failed to score in the second half. No team was able to cinch the win in the end, despite the Trojans edging out a 58% possession rate against Iowa.

“You’re always hoping to come out on top, especially when you go two goals up early in the game,” Alukonis said. “We had a couple of opportunities at the end, but so did they. I’m not happy with the result, but it could have gone either way.”

Next up, USC has one final opportunity against No. 18 UCLA (10-4-2, 6-2-2) in its final game of the regular season. Currently sitting in 10th place in the Big Ten standings, the Trojans will likely need a win to qualify for the 10-team Big Ten Tournament after earning the No. 1 overall seed last year.

“We’re super excited,” Flores said of the upcoming match with UCLA. “It’s always a game that we look forward to, just because it’s a huge rivalry, and this year it’s on at their home, so we’re ready to beat them on their home field.”

USC will face off against the crosstown rival Bruins on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Westwood.