No. 19 women’s soccer burst into Pac-12 play with conviction last Friday when they silenced Utah in Salt Lake City. This week, the 5-2-0 (1-0-0) Trojans will head up the coast to challenge Washington State and Washington.

Prior to last week’s opening conference match, the Trojans had used non-conference play as an experimental ground. They worked on crafting cohesion between each third and establishing a fervid team identity. Against the Utes, the Trojans’ sense of self seemed to have finally settled — their high-tempo, shot selection and counter-press were in perfect order.

Less than eight minutes into the match, senior defender/midfielder Zoe Burns set up junior forward/defender Kayla Colbert for her fourth goal of the season. Colbert leads USC in points with 11 so far this year, and she’s contributed to a goal in each of the team’s last four games. 

“I think in any environment, it helps to score early. That’s always an objective that we have,” said Head Coach Jane Alukonis. “So it felt really nice to do that against Utah. That would be wonderful to do again at Washington State.”

Burns put on a clinic for the remainder of the match as she cemented the win with a goal of her own while serving as a cornerstone at midfield.

“[Burns] has always been a captain for us last year and this year,” Alukonis said. “She’s someone who provides that leadership, but also adaptability and versatility, which is really important to our team … She’s very energetic, hardworking [and] covers a lot of ground.”

The victory over Utah marked USC’s fourth shutout of the season.

To kick off their second week of Pac-12 action, the Trojans will go head-to-head with the 7-2-0 (0-1-0) Washington State Cougars Thursday.

Although USC hasn’t dropped a match to WSU since 2013, the Cougars are a worthy opposition. WSU was ranked within the NCAA Top 25 for six consecutive weeks, peaking at No. 15. Last week, in a narrow 0-1 loss, Washington State had over half of their possessions in the attacking third and held No. 4 Stanford scoreless for 80 minutes.

After the scoreless week, the WSU strikers will be antsy to get the ball back in the net. In particular, senior forward Margie Detrizio is due for a score. Detrizio came up empty on four shots against Stanford and notched two goals against the Trojans last season.

“We remember Margie. She’s really good,” Alukonis said. “We anticipate seeing a different Washington State than we’ve seen in years past. They’re having a good season, they’re playing good soccer. [Also] we know it’ll be [a match] where we’ve got to keep our head on straight and just kind of drown out any noise and play our game.”

On the opposite end of the field, WSU has plenty of grit and maturity. Fifth-year defender Bridget Rieken, a member of the Cougars’ 2019 College Cup run, received the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honor in August. With Rieken commanding the backline alongside 2021 Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year sophomore Nadia Cooper, the Cougars limit opponents to an average of less than one goal per game. Penetrating the defense early will be key for the Trojans considering they’ve yet to win a match without a first half score.

USC will wrap up the weekend Sunday afternoon with a match against the 5-2-2 (0-1) Washington Huskies.

UW is coming off a 1-0 loss to Cal — the end to its five-game unbeaten streak. The Huskies will battle No. 8 UCLA Thursday night before facing the Trojans.

“We have [UCLA] as a travel partner. It does seem like a nice pairing because whoever you play  on Sunday has already had a tough game on Thursday,” Alukonis said.

Statistically, UW looks like a similar matchup to WSU; however, the inexperience of the Huskies’ lineup affects their ability to perform consistently. 83% of the Huskies’ minutes are played by underclassmen compared to the Trojans’ 26%.

“Logic tells us that older players have more experience [and] understand the college game from a physical standpoint. But each day, it’s always based on how the players come in and perform,” Alukonis said. “We’ve got some young players on our team that have really performed, so we’re going in with the same mindset of outplaying and doing what we like to do.”

The Trojans will begin their venture into Washington Thursday against WSU at 5 p.m. at Lower Soccer Field. They’ll take on UW Sunday at 1 p.m. at Husky Soccer Stadium.