Women of Troy continue to stay true to game plan
The No. 1 USC women’s water polo team will take a break from its grueling Mountain Pacific Sports Federation slate as it hosts No. 20 Brown at McDonald’s Swim Stadium tonight, in what could prove to be a challenging nonconference contest.
Scorer · Freshman two-meter Patricia Jancso is second on the team in goals so far this season with 22. She has put up an average of nearly two goals in her last six matches, including a hat trick in a win over No. 1 Stanford. - Gary Fung | Daily Trojan
That is because the Bears (15-6, 0-0) have won five out of their last seven games, including a strong showing in last weekend’s Road Runner Invitational, where they were just a few goals shy of upending UC Davis to take home the tournament title. As a result, the Bears have the full attention of the Women of Troy (14-1, 4-0) despite the fact the game is nonconference.
Brown is coming off dominating victories over Pomona-Pitzer College and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in which Bears senior Sarah Glick scored a combined seven goals and had seven combined assists.
“We’re still preparing for the game like it’s a big conference game,” said senior goalie Tumua Anae.” As a team, we make the decision to take every game seriously, especially for the seniors in our last year — it’s an opportunity to play a game.”
Instead of worrying too much about Brown, the Women of Troy will rely on their strengths as they aim to extend their winning streak to a season-high 13 games.
“For the most part, we just need to go over the game plan that we’ve had from the beginning,” said senior two-meter Kami Craig, who has netted 18 goals this season. “We just need to stick to our game, stick to our defense and take it one possession by one possession.”
One of the recent trends that has enabled USC to not only keep its winning streak alive but also defeat its opponents rather handily is its strong play in the first half. This was seen in the team’s last two matchups against Long Beach State and San Diego State.
Against the 49ers, the Women of Troy scored seven first quarter goals, while simultaneously keeping the 49ers off the scoreboard until the 1:26 mark in the second period. Two days later against the Aztecs, the unit scored six first-half goals in comparison to just one from San Diego State.
And as usual, the team was quick to credit its defense despite strong offensive displays.
“I think our focus on defense has enabled us to play well early,” Anae said. “If you do well on defense, it helps fuel your offense. You have more pride not to give up goals.”
Provided that type of mantra can carry over to tonight’s matchup with Brown, the Women of Troy might notch yet another victory.