No. 19 USC Hits The Trail To Oregon

USC faces Oregon State and Oregon this week. (Photo by Craig Bennett)

No. 19 USC Hits The Trail To Oregon

October 12, 2010 | Women's Soccer

Oct. 12, 2010

THIS WEEK
No. 19 USC women's soccer sets off on the first Pac-10 road trip of the year as the Women of Troy head north to Oregon this week. The Trojans (8-3-2, 1-1 Pac-10) have a night game set for Friday night in Corvallis, playing Oregon State (9-1-1, 1-0) at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15. USC will then head to Eugene to face Oregon (4-6-2, 0-1) in a 1 p.m. match on Sunday (Oct. 17) to continue conference competition.

RANKINGS
USC opened 2010 as the nation's No. 19 ranked team in the NSCAA preseason poll and No. 20 in the Soccer America preseason poll. With their opening loss, however, the Trojans slipped out of the rankings, but they moved back up in the rankings on Sept. 13. USC now weighs in at No. 19 according to NSCAA, and also pops up at No. 18 (Soccer Times) and at No. 24 (Soccer America), and sits at No. 17 in the TopDrawer rankings this week. Oregon State is unranked in the NSCAA poll but is No. 22 according to Soccer Times and No. 10 in TopDrawer's rankings. Oregon is unranked.

FOLLOW ALONG
Live stats will be available for both USC's road games this week. Click the Gametracker link on the USC soccer schedule page at usctrojans.com for live stats. There also will be live streaming video available for the USC-Oregon game on Sunday. Visit www.goducks.com to access the video.

SCOUTING OREGON STATE
The Beavers are 9-1-1 overall and 1-0 in Pac-10 play after beating rival Oregon 3-2 last weekend. OSU is on a five-game win streak, with its only loss to date coming in a 1-0 road loss to UC Irvine. Chelsea Buckland and Melinda Ingalls lead the Beavers in scoring with six and five goals, respectively. Goalkeeper Colleen Boyd has 30 saves and seven goals allowed in 11 appearances, also holding seven shutouts. Linus Rhode enters his third season as head coach of the Beavers, who had a program record 14 wins last season and reached the NCAA Round of 16, finishing 14-8-1 overall after a 4-5 finish in the Pac-10. USC is 13-3-1 all-time against Oregon State after taking a 2-1 loss last season at McAlister Field. That was USC's first loss to the Beavers since 1994.

SCOUTING OREGON
The Ducks are 4-6-2 overall and 0-1 in Pac-10 play after falling 3-2 to rival Oregon State last week to take their third loss in a row. Jen Stoltenberg leads Oregon offensively with nine goals and four assists, having scored goals in the past five straight games. Lindsay Parlee and Cody Miles have shared time in goal. Parlee has 19 saves and six goals allowed in five appearances, and Miles has 28 saves and nine goals allowed in seven appearances. Tara Erickson enters her sixth season as head coach of the Ducks, who went 9-10-1 overall last season and finished 1-8 in Pac-10 play. USC is 13-1 all-time against Oregon, having won the past three meetings in 1-0 decisions. Last year, the Trojans got an early goal from Alyssa Dávila and held on to win 1-0 at McAlister Field.

LAST WEEK
USC started up its Pac-10 push last weekend with a matchup against the nation's top team, who also boasts the leading scorer in the country. The Trojans hung tight with No. 1 Stanford through a scoreless first half, and kept the pressure on the Cardinal throughout. USC created arguably the most dangerous scoring chances in the game, but Stanford capitalized on a pair of goals. The first came from top scorer Christen Press in the 59th minute, and in the 65th Stanford put another one in to go up 2-0. USC kept pushing and got a goal from Mia Bruno in the 84th, but USC ran out of time to equalize in the tough match under the lights at the Coliseum. Next, USC locked horns with No. 21 Cal at McAlister Field and wound up in an offensive explosion. The Trojans took a 2-0 lead and held it at halftime, but Cal fought back and would even take a 4-3 lead with barely a minute and a half remaining in regulation. Elizabeth Eddy answered right back, however, delivering her third goal of the game just 14 seconds after Cal's Alex Morgan had hit her hat trick to get the Bears the lead. Eddy nailed the equalizer to bring up overtime, and Ashli Sandoval came through with the winning score in overtime as she finished off a free kick to the top corner of the goal to secure a dramatic 5-4 overtime win for the Women of Troy. Eddy's hat trick was the first three-goal outing by a Trojan since Amy Rodriguez in 2008, and was the first for USC in a Pac-10 game since 1997. The freshman forward now leads USC in scoring with five goals and three assists to date.

BREAK THE RECORD
Be a part of a history-making crowd on October 22 for USC's crosstown showdown against UCLA a the Los Angeles Coliseum! The match against the Bruins will be Break the Record Night at the Coliseum, as we seek to bring a record-breaking crowd to watch the USC-UCLA clash. Two years ago, a record crowd of 7,804 fans showed up at the Coliseum for the 2008 women's soccer crosstown showdown, marking the largest attendance ever at a USC-UCLA women's soccer match and the second largest crowd in the nation for a non-NCAA Tournament women's soccer game. That 2008 total even beat the crowd that saw USC's 2-1 victory over UCLA in College Station, Texas, at the 2007 NCAA semifinal, and obliterated the previous USC record for attendance at a soccer game. The national attendance record for a non-NCAA Tournament women's soccer game stands at 8,204, so get ready to come out and get loud at the Coliseum for a bigtime Pac-10 matchup! There will be prizes and giveaways throughout this season's USC-UCLA match, so mark your calendars now for October 22 to help us make history!

SPREAD OFFENSE
USC is not making it easy for opponents to key in on a specific scoring threat on the front lines this season. In USC's eight wins to date, seven different Trojans have provided the game-winning goal, with Ashli Sandoval holding a pair after her OT winner vs. Cal. A whopping 11 different players have scored so far, and no one had more than three goals total until Elizabeth Eddy busted ahead of the pack with a hat trick against Cal. Her fellow freshmen Haley Boysen, Autumn Altamirano and Mia Bruno have combined for seven goals to add to USC's scoring load. Eddy's five goals and three assists have all been tallied in the past five games.

SANDOVAL STRIKES BACK
In her first game action in almost a year since suffering a torn ACL last season, redshirt junior midfielder Ashli Sandoval scored in back-to-back games upon returning to the field during USC's road trip through Texas. Sandoval came through with the game-winner at TCU in her 2010 debut, and against Texas, she provided heroics once again in scoring the equalizer in the 87th minute to lock up the Longhorns 1-1. She sustained an ankle injury following the game-tying strike, however, and was sidelined for USC's next two games in Fullerton, Calif. The midfielder returned to game action on Sept. 10 vs. Auburn, and has seen limited time since then after reaggravating her ankle, but played again on Sept. 26 at Eastern Washington. With last week's assist and eventual overtime game-winner against Cal, Sandoval made some more movement in the USC record books, as she is close to cracking the top-10 in career points (Sandoval now holds 44), and also now boast 22 career assists to sit three away from No. 3 all-time.

FRESH START
Five freshmen started USC's first game of the year, and it's been a similar story ever since. Elizabeth Eddy has started all 11 games to date, and freshman goalkeeper Shelby Church also has locked into goal for every game. All told, six freshmen have appeared in the starting lineup, including redshirt freshman Morgan Morrow's starting debut on Sept. 3 after being sidelined last year with a knee injury. Morrow has set up shop in the back to replace injured junior defender Chelsea Buehning, who tore her ACL in USC's 2010 season opener.

CHAMPIONSHIP CORE
Four players remain from the Trojans' 2007 NCAA Championship team, providing an anchor of talent and experience around which Khosroshahin has built a powerhouse of potential for the season to come. In breaking down the 2010 Trojan roster, there is a clear balance of power. Seniors Alyssa Dávila, Megan Ohai and Karter Haug offer up winning experience from front to back, with star midfielder Ashli Sandoval returning as a redshirt junior after being sidelined last year by knee injury. Together, the foursome boasts a national championship as well as a wealth of experience to anchor this year's lineup. Dávila and Ohai headline the front lines, with Sandoval shining in the middle and Haug in command of the defense. Already, the group has produced for the Women of Troy. Dávila just notched her 12th career game-winning goal to stand at No. 2 all-time at USC; Sandoval scored in her first two games back on the turf and ranks No. 4 all-time with 22 career assists; Ohai has a hold on No. 9 all-time in career goals (15) and is No. 6 in career game-winning goals (7) after her winner vs. Purdue; and Haug has served up two assists and scored one goal so far.

CHURCH'S STATEMENT
After getting her first career shutout under her belt with a 1-0 win at TCU on August 27, USC's freshman goalkeeper Shelby Church delivered another powerful statement in the very next game. Faced with a penalty kick that threatened to put USC down two goals in the first half at Texas, Church made a clutch save against the PK to keep the Trojans within reach, and USC would equalize late in the game. Church also helped secure a run of three straight shutouts for the Trojan defense, and she currently holds four shutouts, 47 saves and 13 goals against to kick off her career as a Trojan.

STREAK TALK
USC held a six-game win streak and was undefeated in nine straight games after a winning weekend trip through Washington. Forced to come from behind in both road matches, the Trojans were up to the task. USC trailed host Gonzaga 1-0 at halftime before equalizing in the 69th minute with a goal from Elizabeth Eddy. In overtime, Eddy set up the winner for Autumn Altamirano, who headed in her goal in the 96th minute to get USC the 2-1 OT victory. In Eastern Washington for the first time, USC saw the Eagles score after just a minute and a half of play, but the Trojans turned around and scored twice within 10 minutes to set off on a path toward an eventual 5-1 win. Courtney Garcia had the equalizer, and would go on to make it a two-goal game in scoring USC's fifth goal during the 88th minute. It's the first two-goal game for the sophomore. Also scoring in the big win were Samantha Johnson -- who got the game-winner in the 12th minute -- along with Haley Boysen and Karter Haug.

FINDING THEIR FEET
USC's freshman class has been an integral part of the Trojan lineup in the early goings of the season, and now that group officially has made its mark on the stat sheets. During USC's Trojan Invitational, Haley Boysen became the first freshman to score a goal this season with her overtime game-winner against Auburn. She would also pick up the first freshman assists during the weekend as well, including help on her fellow freshman Mia Bruno's first career goal as a Trojan in USC's win over NAU. In USC's 4-1 win over Oklahoma, two new freshmen joined the scoring ranks with Autumn Altamirano and Elizabeth Eddy both notching a goal and an assist.

YEAR TEN
USC head coach Ali Khosroshahin is in his 10th season of collegiate head coaching. It's a milestone that he admits came faster than he expected, but there's no doubt that he has squeezed a lot of shining moments into his first decade. In his three seasons at the helm of the Women of Troy, he's continued his streak of NCAA appearances (2005 and 2006 at Cal State Fullerton; 2007-present at USC) and picked up a national championship along the way. Khosroshahin and the Trojans won the 2007 NCAA title in his first season at Troy, making USC the first Pac-10 school to ever win a women's soccer national championship. The 2007 National Coach of the Year, Khosroshahin totes a 48-14-7 (.746) overall record at USC and 124-54-13 (.683) career record into this final season of his first decade of collegiate coaching.

BACK ON THE ATTACK
Over half of USC's goals last season came from the feet of returning strikers Alyssa Dávila, Sam Johnson and Megan Ohai. Seniors Dávila and Ohai are already locked into the USC record books for career scoring totals, and the pair are poised to climb even higher this year. Now a sophomore, Johnson's firepower is no secret, but the strong forward is in even better position to pack a punch at the top for USC this year along with Dávila and Ohai. Including those two senior strikers and sophomore Johnson, the Trojans return all but one goal scorer from last year. Dávila led them all with nine goals, heading up a group of 10 players to get to the back of the net. Nine of those remain, hauling back a good 87 percent of the Trojan scoring load to the pitch for 2010.

LAST SEASON
In 2009, USC made its fifth consecutive NCAA appearance in reaching the first round, falling in penalty kicks to Oklahoma State. The Trojans had pieced together a nine-game winning streak during the season, and finished Pac-10 play in fourth place with a 4-3-2 mark. Overall, the Women of Troy posted 12-6-3 record on the year and finished up ranked No. 24 in the final NSCAA national poll. Senior goalkeeper Kristin Olsen was a back-to-back Pac-10 Player of the Week last season, going on to be named a Hermann Trophy semifinalist and a NSCAA First Team All-American. Olsen also led a group of four USC All-Pac-10 honorees. Olsen was selected to the All-Pac-10 First Team, junior midfielder Alyssa Dávila picked up her first Pac-10 award with a spot on the Second Team; senior Meagan Holmes earned her third All-Pac-10 honor with an Honorable Mention pick and freshman Samantha Johnson was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team to open her Trojan playing career.