Welcome to the first installment of Annenberg Media’s new weekly USC sports newsletter! Each Monday, a member of the sports desk will take a look back at the previous week in USC athletics and provide a brief synopsis of the news you need to know from each sport in action.
There will be hyperlinks to more detailed recaps of each sport/event when available, as well as some great photography from photo contributors at home contests. Now, you’ll have no excuse to not be caught up on every single Trojan sports squad! You can also find more condensed weekly recaps on the Annenberg Media Sports Instagram page @ANNMediaSports:
With March now upon us, it’s only right to start out on the hardwood:
Women’s basketball
No. 7 USC women’s basketball storms back in 2OT to beat Arizona – by Nikki Thomas
No. 7 USC women’s basketball trounces Arizona State, clinches No. 2 seed in Pac-12 tournament – by Kasey Kazliner
Women’s hoops traveled to Arizona to close out its regular season this past weekend, picking up a pair of victories to secure a first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament this coming week. But it wasn’t exactly that simple.
The Trojans needed a miraculous late comeback Thursday in Tucson just to force overtime, ultimately coming out on top 95-93 after a second overtime period. Things seemed dire when freshman guard JuJu Watkins fouled out near the end of regulation, but graduate guard Kayla Padilla hit a clutch third-chance 3-pointer to tie it with just seconds to spare. Padilla then hit another pivotal triple in each extra period to lift USC over Arizona.
Saturday’s 70-55 win in Tempe was much more straightforward. Junior center Rayah Marshall had her second double-double of the weekend, totaling 41 points, 26 rebounds and seven blocks over the road trip. USC held Arizona State under 33% shooting from the field and held a 54-34 rebounding advantage. The Trojans clinched a No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 tournament; they’ll play the winner of Washington-Arizona on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Las Vegas.
Men’s basketball
USC men’s basketball drops leap day matchup against Washington State – by James Bao
USC men’s basketball wins at Washington in last road game of regular season – by Riley Sager
Men’s basketball traveled up north to Washington for the weekend. The Trojans’ inconsistencies continued as they split their two matchups, despite playing well overall.
Against a tough, ranked Washington State team, USC led for 38 minutes and by as much as 12. However — as has been the case much of this season — the Trojans couldn’t close it out, falling 75-72. Freshman guard Isaiah Collier was a bright spot with 24 points on 9-for-17 shooting.
Sunday’s game at Washington appeared to be headed in the same direction, as USC’s 15-point advantage with 6:11 remaining was cut down to three. However, Collier continued his best two-game stretch as a Trojan to save the day, tallying eight of his career-high 31 points in the final 2:25 to lift USC 82-75.
USC, now just 12-17 overall, closes out its regular season at home against the Arizona schools this weekend.
Men’s volleyball
USC men’s volleyball drops first half of Crosstown Showdown series – by Will Simonds
No. 11 men’s volleyball had a tough weekend against the No. 4 Bruins, taking just one set across two matches in a home-and-home series.
UCLA dominated the last two sets Thursday at Galen Center, taking them 25-10 and 25-14. After head coach Jeff Nygaard cited improper attitude and focus against the defending national champions, Saturday’s effort over in Westwood was much improved. Though the Trojans still lost 3-1, they were dead even with the Bruins after two sets before running out of steam.
Now losers of four straight, USC needs to get back on track this week at home against Penn State and Ohio State in the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge.
Baseball
After an 8-5 loss to Michigan Tuesday, USC entered the Kubota College Baseball Series at just 2-6, desperately needing to turn things around. A weekend sweep in Texas didn’t help. The Trojans dropped two games to No. 5 TCU, sandwiched around a loss to No. 7 Texas A&M.
Friday’s extra-inning defeat was the most heartbreaking; USC came back to tie and then take an 8-6 lead in the top of the ninth, before graduate pitcher Jared Feikes surrendered that advantage right back in the bottom of the frame. TCU went on to win 9-8 in the 11th inning. The Trojans’ pitching gave up six runs in the final three innings to fall 9-3 against the Aggies on Saturday, then allowed nine runs for a third straight game in a 9-5 Sunday loss to the Horned Frogs.
Despite his team’s struggles, sophomore catcher Jacob Galloway continued to show out. Galloway went 5-for-12 in the series and added four RBIs; his OPS is over 1.000 through 11 games. He’ll look to keep it going at Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday before Arizona visits for a weekend series to begin conference play.
Beach volleyball
The three-time defending national champions hosted the Battle for Los Angeles tournament on campus, winning all four of their matches with three 5-0 sweeps. Additionally, three of those victories for No. 3 USC came over other ranked opponents: No. 9 Long Beach State, No. 18 Cal Poly and No. 14 Grand Canyon.
Now 8-2 through two early-season tournaments, the Trojans are set to head to Tempe for the Pac-12 South Invitational this weekend for four more duals.
Women’s water polo
Another perfect weekend for the Trojans came in the pool at the Convergence Tournament in Claremont. On Friday, No. 4 USC beat Villanova 21-7 and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 18-4. Saturday’s wins came over Pomona-Pitzer 11-3 and Pacific 13-8. Redshirt senior attacker Alejandra Aznar scored 11 times over the weekend to lead the team, which next hosts St. Francis on Saturday.
Tennis
Men’s tennis swept Michigan 4-0 at home Tuesday, picking up a much-needed win to snap a five-game losing streak. No. 63-ranked junior Peter Makk grabbed an impressive singles win over the Wolverines’ No. 18 Gavin Young in straight sets. Pepperdine visits on Thursday before USC heads to Stanford on Sunday to begin the Pac-12 season.
Meanwhile, No. 8 women’s tennis fell 5-2 at UCLA Friday, as three ranked players took losses in the singles competition. Conference play continues over the weekend as the Washington schools visit Marks Stadium on Friday and Saturday.
Lacrosse
Through two contests of its current three-game East Coast trip, No. 16 women’s lacrosse took down Towson 11-5 Friday before coming up short 13-10 to No. 15 Johns Hopkins on Sunday. After trailing early, senior midfielder Claudia Shevitz led USC’s comeback over Towson with four goals. On Sunday, though, the Trojans blew an early 4-0 lead to the Blue Jays and were outscored 4-1 down the final stretch to take a tough road loss. Now with a 4-2 record, USC finishes its trip off at VCU Tuesday before coming home to play Temple on Friday.
Swim and dive
The No. 4-ranked women’s swim and dive squad grabbed second place at the Pac-12 Championships in Washington. In total, USC picked up six individual titles and three relay wins in the event.
Freshman Minna Abraham was an absolute superstar over the weekend, racking up two of the individual championships and anchoring all of USC’s relay titles. Senior Kaitlyn Dobler won the 100y breaststroke championship for the fourth straight year, and, with a win in the 200y breaststroke, became the first Pac-12 swimmer to ever win seven total breaststroke championships.
In the men’s Pac-12 diving championships, sophomore Laurent Gosselin-Paradis won the platform competition for the second straight season. The men’s swimming competition is set for later this week.
Football
The NFL combine took place last week in Indianapolis. Check out Sullivan Maley’s coverage for Talk of Troy to see how some Trojans performed!