No. 13 USC Treks East to Face No. 20 Stony Brook

LOS ANGELES – The 13th-ranked USC lacrosse team (13-2, 8-1 Pac-12) takes its second trip to the East Coast this spring where the Trojans will meet No. 20 Stony Brook (8-4, 4-0 America East) on Sunday, April 14, at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. The Women of Troy have two regular-season games remaining and are poised to earn a first-round bye in the upcoming Pac-12 tournament.

GAME #16 • Sunday, April 14 • 12 p.m. ET (9 a.m. PT)
No. 13 USC (13-2) at No. 20 Stony Brook (8-4)
Kenneth P. Lavalle Stadium • Stony Brook, N.Y.
SERIES HISTORY: USC trails, 3-1 (.250) • STREAK: L2
LAST MEETING: L, 14-10 (Feb. 16, 2018 • Costa Mesa, Calif.)
STREAM: AmericaEast.tv
OPPONENT WEB: StonyBrookAthletics.com

CROSSExamination

USC is ranked No. 13 in the IWLCA coaches poll; the 50th consecutive week that the Trojans are ranked in the poll.
The Trojans are 13-13 all-time in East Coast games (EST time zone) and are 0-2 at Stony Brook.
USC leads the Pac-12 in scoring defense (8.06 gaa).
No. 20 Stony Brook is the seventh ranked opponent the Trojans face this season. USC owns 19 all-time wins over ranked foes (19-28).
Nine different Trojans have scored double-digit goals this season. Six of those players have scored 20 or more goals including team leader Kelsey Huff (33).
USC has received Pac-12 Player of the Week honors seven times this spring. Riley Hertford is the Trojans' only two-time winner and most recently, Jackie Gilbert received the Defensive Player of the Week honor; the first of her career.
Seventh-year head coach Lindsey Munday is 92-40 all-time (.697).

USC plays its 27th game in the Eastern Time zone. In previous trips to the East Coast, the Trojans are 13-13 and split games in Boston earlier this season with a loss to No. 1 Boston College and a win over Boston University. The Women of Troy will visit Stony Brook for the third time. USC fell to the Seawolves in its two previous trips to Long Island; once by three goals (2015) and once by two goals (2017).

The Trojans lead the Pac-12 and are 8th in the NCAA in scoring defense at an 8.06 goals-against average. USC is also first in the league in save percentage (.512) and scoring margin (+5.70 gpg). Nine Women of Troy have scored double-digit goals through 15 games including six players over the 20-goal mark. Team leader Kelsey Huff has 39 points on 33 goals and six assists. Sophia Donovan also has 39 points (26g, 13a). Hope Anhut has 38 points as the team's top distributor with 14 assists (24 goals). Emily Concialdi (22g, 13a) has 35 points. Huff also has 29 ground balls and 25 caused turnovers. Izzy McMahon ranks fifth with 31 points (22g, 9a) and Kaeli Huff has 24 points (21g, 3a).

All-American Kerrigan Miller does a little of everything. She has 16 goals, 32 draw controls, 39 ground balls, and a team-high 28 caused turnovers. In goal, Riley Hertford leads the league with an 8.47 goals-against average and tops all players with 3.40 ground balls per game. In the center circle, Jackie Gilbert has 88 draw controls and leads the league at 5.87 per game. She also has 24 caused turnovers and 24 ground balls.

TRACK THE TROJANS: For a behind-the-scenes look, fans of USC lacrosse can follow the Trojans on Twitter and Instagram at @USCTrojansLax. USC appeared in four live Pac-12 Networks broadcasts this spring: home games against Stanford (Mar. 25), Colorado (Apr. 5), and Oregon (Apr. 7); and a road game at Stanford (Mar. 31). Pac-12 tournament games will also be carried on the network's channels. All non-broadcast league games will be shown on the Pac-12+ stream platform.

LAST TIME OUT: The Women of Troy had a season-long nine-game winning streak snapped in a narrow 9-8 loss to No. 23-ranked Colorado despite a heroic effort to tie the game with a final shot at two seconds left. The loss was only USC's 11th all-time at McAlister Field, but the Trojans bounced back and put on as clean a performance as possible with a 16-0 shutout of Oregon, which goes into the books as the first in both program and Pac-12 history. Offensively, the Trojans got a first-career hat trick from Erin Bakes who scored four goals. On defense, Jackie Gilbert had two ground balls and caused two turnovers but was influential with 10 draw controls in the center circle. Kerrigan Miller caused five turnovers for the third time in her career and came up with two ground balls as well.

SCOUTING REPORT - NO. 20 STONY BROOK: The Seawolves (8-4, 4-0 America East) are on a four-game winning streak since a narrow 11-10 loss to Florida. Stony Brook's four losses were by a combined total of nine goals including the loss to Florida and a 15-14 loss to Princeton. The Seawolves' 7.36 goals-against average is the nation's fifth-ranked defense. Stony Brook clears the ball at a .916 rate (5th in the NCAA) and only turns the ball over 12.27 times per game (4th in the NCAA). Ally Kennedy leads SBU in goals (41), points (46), ground balls (29), and draw controls (60). Siobhan Rafferty has scored 30 goals and has 16 ground balls. Haley Dillon leads the Seawolves' defense with 19 caused turnovers and has 17 ground balls. In goal, Anna Tesoriero has a .456 save percentage with a 7.86 goals-against average. The Trojans and the Seawolves will meet for the fifth time and for the third time in Stony Brook. USC is 1-3 in the four previous games but has lost the last two meetings; a 9-7 decision in Stony Brook (2017) and a 14-10 score in Orange County (2018).

ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS: USC has celebrated seven IWLCA All-America selections through six years as a program. Michaela Michael was the first-ever All-American selection as a third-teamer in 2015. Michael and defender Courtney Tarleton were each named to the first team in 2016, with midfielder Amanda Johansen chosen to the third team. Michael repeated her first-team honors in 2017 and defender Lydia Sutton earned third-team honors. Kerrigan Miller joined the ranks as a third-team choice in 2018.

PAC IT UP: 2019 is the second season of Pac-12 lacrosse. In 2018, the Conference of Champions made lacrosse the 13th women's sport sponsored by the Pac-12. The addition of Arizona State brought the league to the minimum six teams to receive an automatic qualifier berth into the NCAA championship. The first-ever Pac-12 Lacrosse Championship was held at Prentup Field; hosted by Colorado. Stanford claimed the first Pac-12 title and will defend its crown at the 2019 championship in Eugene, Ore. (April 25-28). Previously a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, from the end of 2015 to the middle of the 2018 season, USC won a school-record 22 consecutive conference games. The Trojans were undefeated in the MPSF in 2016 (9-0) and 2017 (8-0). USC won the 2016 and 2017 MPSF championships. USC is 6-0 all-time in league openers and earned its first victory in a Pac-12 opener, 14-3, against Arizona State in 2018.

PAC-12 POW-WOW: Trojans own 11 Pac-12 Player of the Week awards. Six different Women of Troy have received the honor this spring. Emily Concialdi (Feb. 25), Sophia Donovan (Mar. 18), and Kelsey Huff (Apr. 1) were each named for the offensive award for the first times in their careers. Kerrigan Miller (Mar. 11) earned her second-career nod and became the first player in league history to receive both the defensive and offensive awards in her career. Riley Hertford is USC's only repeat winner this season (Mar. 18, Apr. 1) and is the program's third player to receive multiple awards. On April 8, Jackie Gilbert received her first-career award to make it seven this season for the Women of Troy. Trojans swept the awards on both March 18 and April 1. Previously, All-Pac-12 goalie Gussie Johns was named for the Defensive Player of the Week award twice in 2018. All-American defender Lydia Sutton was also Defensive Player of the Week once.

POLL POSITION: The Trojans opened 2019 ranked No. 21 in the IWLCA Coaches' preseason poll. USC has spent 50 consecutive weeks ranked in the IWLCA poll dating back to the 2016 preseason poll. USC spent a school-record 26 straight weeks in the top 10 from March 21, 2016 through Feb. 19, 2018. The Trojans are 19-28 all-time against ranked opponents, which includes a 9-13 record against teams ranked in the top 10 and 2-10 against teams ranked among the top five.

EAST COAST BIAS: USC has played 26 games on the East Coast (in the Eastern time zone) and holds a 13-13 overall record in those games. The Trojans own wins over Dartmouth (2), Notre Dame (2), LIU Brooklyn, Marist, Stetson, Florida, Virginia Tech, and Boston University in true road games. USC defeated James Madison at a neutral location in the 2015 NCAA first round in Durham, N.C.; beat Ohio State in a game played in New Jersey; and took down Jacksonville in Gainesville, Fla., in the first round of the 2017 NCAA tournament.

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Players Mentioned

Hope Anhut

Erin Bakes

Emily Concialdi

Sophia Donovan

Jackie Gilbert

Riley Hertford

Kaeli Huff

Kelsey Huff

Gussie Johns

Izzy McMahon

Kerrigan Miller

Lydia Sutton