Womens’ soccer starts postseason
USC Women’s Soccer will begin their campaign for a third NCAA Women’s College Cup title against UC Irvine Saturday at Soni McAlister Field.
The Trojans enter the tournament as a 4-seed, having defeated the No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins in their final regular season match. USC won all four of their matches against ranked opponents but did not crack into the tier of 3-seeds that includes the Pac-12 Champion Stanford Cardinals. The selection committee awarded a 1-seed position to UCLA.
The Anteaters qualified for the tournament with an automatic bid as the Big West Conference Champions, winning their conference tournament as only the sixth-best team by regular season record. They now own a 10-6-6 record, including non-conference and conference tournament play.
Alukonis noted that, with a full week without a match, the Trojans have had more time to prepare for this first postseason match.
“We had a little more time usually [than for] most games … a day or two where we [could] focus on the opponent a bit more than sometimes with quick turnarounds,” she said.
USC hosted the Anteaters in September, beating them 3-2. In that early-season match, USC sprinted out to a 3-0 lead within 25 minutes, then conceded two second half goals from imprecise defending when the match was already won. Junior midfielder Zoe Burns had a player-of-the-match-worthy performance with a goal and an assist. USC dominated down the right side of the pitch — both of their first two goals came from smart combination play on that flank. Sophomore forward Simone Jackson also missed a penalty in the second half that would’ve put USC up 4-1.
Head Coach Jane Alukonis found Irvine to be a “hard-working team that didn’t give up” in that first match.
“We went up 3-0 and then they came back, changed tactics and mentality … credit to them for that because that’s hard to do,” she said.
Despite the victory, Alukonis expects a challenge the second time around. “We know that they’re always going to just make the game tough, whether that’s from how they press or their possession on the ball.”
USC cannot afford to take Irvine lightly. The Anteaters have demonstrated a capacity to generate offense all season and have hit somewhat of a hot streak going into the national championship. They’ve averaged 14 shots per game this season, with at least 40% of those being on goal.
In the Big West conference tournament, Irvine scored six goals and conceded none across three matches, winning the final 3-0 against Long Beach State. Irvine midfielder Amber Huff has found particularly good form, with seven assists in her last four matches. All three of Irvine’s goals in the final came in the first half, and two were off of corner kicks, which Huff took.
Alukonis was quick to acknowledge Irvine’s proficiency with set pieces.
“Irvine has scored many of their goals recently on set pieces. They have a long throw-in, and have done well on some corners in their conference tournament,” she said. “A key for us is negating those as much as possible and then hoping to continue executing on ours in a positive way.”
Keeping possession of the ball is a key part of the Trojans’ game plan to exploit Irvine’s weaknesses and clinch the win Saturday.
“We’ve noticed that [for] opponents that dominate the possession against Irvine, typically the game favors them,” Alukonis said. “I know that sounds kind of obvious in the game of soccer, but it’s not always the case.”
Above all, she hopes to continue their positive momentum after a strong result against UCLA.
“I was super pleased with the work rate of the players [against] UCLA … [on] both sides of the ball, we felt like every player just left everything out there,” she said. “So that’s something we’re encouraging players to bring no matter what game it is.”
USC has won the Women’s College Cup twice before, once in 2007, when Assistant Coach Amy Rodriguez was a key member of the team, and again in 2016. USC did not win the Pac-12 in either season they won the national championship. Could the same happen again this year? If so, it has to start with a win in front of a home crowd Saturday.