Women of Troy fall to elite Bay Area foes

It was a tough weekend for the USC women’s soccer team as it found itself on the losing end of two matches, falling to No. 23 California by a score of 2-1 on Friday and to No. 3 Stanford 1-0 on Sunday.

The Women of Troy (8-4-2, 2-3 Pac-12) were coming off a 2-0 shutout win over Utah, but their stellar performance failed to transfer over to this weekend’s games. USC fought hard and lost by only two combined goals, but the results nonetheless give the team an unappealing record in Pac-12 conference games so far.

Friday’s game against the Golden Bears (11-3, 3-2) was especially tough as the Women of Troy battled against a physical Cal team and fell victim to a controversial finish. The first half was tightly contested, with each team holding their own and neither able to finish any of the half’s nine total shots.

“I thought they started the game fantastic, that energy and pressure of the first 15 minutes was great,” USC head coach Keidane McAlpine said. “What I wasn’t happy with was that we had momentum, but we still couldn’t get many shots on frame.”

In the second half, however, freshman midfielder Sydney Johnson struck gold and slotted in her first career goal.

“It felt amazing,” Johnson said. “It was kind of unreal that it happened, and I just stood there in awe for a little bit.”

Johnson’s goal in the 64th minute of the match — which was assisted by junior midfielder Jamie Fink — gave the Trojans the lead and quickened the match’s pace. But the surge and momentum that resulted from the goal was extremely short-lived.

Without batting an eyelash, the Bears responded with an incredible shot into the upper-corner of the net out of senior goalkeeper Caroline Stanley’s reach.

Cal then took up the search for a winning goal and after adding a total of eight second-half shots, they finally found the winner, but not without plenty of controversy.

A seemingly harmless cross turned into a disaster, as Stanley appeared to be cut off by one of the Cal’s Arielle Ship while attempting to corral the ball. No call was given and forward Arielle Ship took advantage of the open net, giving the Bears the advantage and the eventual win.

“We just have to be better in the final third,” McAlpine said. “We’ve gotta know how to be more composed and keep that momentum going throughout the match.”

The Women of Troy took that mindset into Sunday’s match against third-ranked Stanford (11-1-2, 3-1-1), whose resume listed impressive wins over No. 7 North Carolina and No. 5 Florida .

“Stanford is by far one of the top teams in the country,” McAlpine said. “Any time you play games like these, those are the best teachers for us.”

The Cardinal were coming off their only loss of the season after falling 2-1 to No. 1 UCLA on Thursday and were looking to get back to their winning ways.

But the Women of Troy were determined, and in response to Stanford’s stellar attack — 27 goals in 13 games — the team took a different approach. Instead of pushing forward with energy and speed from the get go, they sat back and defended, fending off Stanford attacks while trusting their defense and their goalkeeper to keep the game even.

“We had different game plans for each half,” Stanley said. “The first half was more defensively based and I thought we executed what we had planned tactically very well.”

The strategy worked briefly, but the Cardinal attacked relentlessly, and the box score showed it as they outshot USC 13-0 in the first half.

The Women of Troy’s defense held their ground until the 24th minute. Stanford broke through after Stanley’s initial save on an outside shot was not enough to keep the rebound from going in.

The Cardinal lead did little to bolster USC’s hopes of a comeback as they remained in their tactical shape and started attacking more and more. The Women of Troy had their chances, especially in the second half when they were able to push forward and get some shots on goal.

“We decided to take the last 45 minutes to press hard and use our energy towards that and try to get a goal,” Fink said. “That was pretty much the game plan.”

But it was not to be. Despite the reenergized second half attack, the squad failed to convert in their search for a draw against arguably their toughest opponent thus far.

“I thought all weekend we struggled with our final pass, and that’s the difference between having more shots and not having shots,” McAlpine said. “That is one thing we will definitely work on moving forward.”

With even tougher Pac-12 games soon arriving, the Women of Troy look to bounce back quickly to revitalize their preseason hopes of reaching the NCAA tournament.

“This is what postseason is gonna feel like,” McAlpine said. “If we remember that we still have our goals in front of us and take the positives and build on them, then it will be very easy to focus on the last six games.”