The Trojans are onto the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time under head coach Jane Alukonis.
In a low-scoring affair, USC women’s soccer took down the Grand Canyon Lopes 1-0 in front of a home crowd Friday afternoon. The win avenges a first-round home defeat in the tournament last season for Alukonis and the Trojans.
“I did a lot of work trying to understand how to break spells because when I was at UCLA, it was the same thing; we got upset first round after a good season,” Alukonis said. “We know [come] tournament time, teams play different because if you concede or if you lose, you’re out. Some teams might sit-in because you can go to PKs. Just making sure we found a way to get the ball in the net.”
Despite only managing one goal, the Trojans dominated in nearly all facets of the game, possessing the ball for 67% of the time and keeping it on GCU’s side of the pitch for extended periods of time.
Because of the large discrepancy in time of possession between the two teams, the Lopes were only able to muster four total shots to the Trojans’ 14. None of the shots proved any danger to USC, as only one of them made it through to sophomore goalkeeper Hannah Dickinson.
“A big reason why we like to dominate possession is to try to tire out the opponent,” Alukonis said. “Obviously, you want a goal as soon as possible, but typically around the 70th minute mark is when they really start to show if they’re tired.”
The lone goal of the game came from junior midfielder Helena Sampaio on a penalty kick in the 66th minute drawn by junior forward Izzy Kimberly, Sampaio’s sixth goal of the season.
The midfielder knocked it into the net with ease, placing it in the bottom left corner as GCU’s goalkeeper, junior DeAira Jackson, dove toward the opposite post.
“After the ball went into the net, I was just gonna hug Izzy [Kimberly],” Sampaio said. “I was just happy because I knew as soon as we scored, we were going to win the game.”
Sampaio nearly outshot GCU with three shots on the afternoon and was inches away from a second goal later in the half, if not for Jackson’s sprawling save.
“I thought it was going to go in,” Sampaio said. “I was ready to celebrate.”
Prior to the penalty-kick score, the Trojans still had plenty of scoring chances, with multiple hitting the crossbar or becoming one of Jackson’s five saves, like one of Sampaio’s shots. For much of the game, the Trojans’ performance was reminiscent of their past month of play — a stout defense without much scoring, as USC went 1-2-3 dating to October 14.
But Alukonis said she knew that, despite USC’s poor luck on scoring this past month, it would eventually turn in the Trojans’ favor.
“We said, ‘we know our luck and our karma is gonna come back around,’” Alukonis said. “[I’m] happy it did today. Really good job by Izzy [Kimberly] drawing [the penalty kick] and Helena [Sampaio] is pretty much flawless when she takes PKs.”
It was the stout backline of Trojan defenders that afforded the USC attack to miss so many chances, but still have USC come out with the win. While the Trojans dominated in possession, the Lopes came in with a plan to implement fast breaks as their counter-attack. This allowed multiple GCU players to play one-on-one against a USC defender — battles which the Trojans often won.
Minutes before Sampaio scored her goal, GCU had a particularly dangerous attack brewing on a fast break, but freshman defender Alyssa Gonzalez made a successful tackle, which kept the ball out of harm’s way.
“That’s always kind of the downside of playing the style that we play that’s very expansive,” Alukonis said. “Tons of goals — probably most in college soccer — [are when] our team is getting caught in transition.”
The Trojans now look to the next round as they will face off against BYU on the road on November 16.