Women of Troy overcome early mistakes
From the casual fan’s standpoint, the No. 2 USC women’s water polo team did just about everything right in its 9-2 win over No. 7 Loyola Marymount Saturday afternoon at McDonald’s Swim Stadium.
Dominating · Freshman two-meter Patricia Jancso and the USC women’s water polo team captured a 9-2 victory over Loyola Marymount. - Sunil Murali | Daily Trojan
Facing a top 10-ranked opponent in LMU, the Women of Troy scored seven consecutive goals to defeat the Lions who were coming off a UC San Diego Triton Invitational title.
Leading USC in its offensive onslaught were junior driver Joelle Bekhazi and sophomore driver Nadia Dan, who scored two goals apiece. Additionally, the Women of Troy held the LMU offense, which was averaging 14.25 goals entering the contest, to just two goals and then shut them out in the second half.
Despite what appeared to be an impressive victory over a top-10 foe, USC was not entirely pleased with its performance.
“We have a lot to work on,” Dan said. “We missed a lot of opportunities. We have a long way to go from where we can be with all the talent we have. We have everything here; we just have to work hard and focus.”
The discouraging remarks stem from the fact that USC got off to a rough start early on in the contest. The Women of Troy, who were just coming off a 13-goal scoring barrage against UCLA last weekend, failed to score once in the first nine minutes of the game after several inopportune shots.
“We didn’t come out with the right mind-set,” Dan continued. “We just missed a lot of opportunities. We had a really good gameplan. We knew the goalie’s weakness, we just didn’t execute. We didn’t execute our center plays or our six-on-fives either.”
As a result of the Women of Troy’s struggles, the Lions were able to get on the scoreboard early and go up by a score of 1-0, causing even more frustration on the USC side.
“Our defense sucked today,” said USC head coach Jovan Vavic. “We don’t talk. We don’t communicate. We don’t make switches. I don’t even know how many times we got ejected. You get ejected because you’re out of position. Our defense was just terrible.”
Yet as the game wore on, USC’s depth became too much to overcome for LMU. With the game tied at two goals apiece midway through the second quarter, a goal by Bekhazi broke the tie to put the Women of Troy in the driver’s seat with a one-goal lead heading into halftime.
In the second half, USC piled it on, scoring six goals and turning a once competitive matchup into a near-blowout. Each goal was scored by a different player, highlighting the team’s offensive balance.
Nonetheless, Vavic and the rest of the team were quick to deflect any praise.
“LMU simply got tired,” the 15th-year head coach said. “We created quite a few opportunities in the counter attack by getting open for some easy fast break opportunities. That made a difference.”