The No. 1 seeded USC women’s soccer team crushed Sacramento State 5-0 on Sunday, dominating all facets of the game en route to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
It had been 10 days since the then-No. 4-ranked USC women’s soccer team fell to Rutgers in the Big Ten tournament semifinals in a penalty shootout. Having secured the Big Ten regular season title against their heated rivals, the Trojans’ misses from the spot ultimately cost them a chance for a rematch against UCLA in the final.
Whatever anger the team felt in the wake of the Scarlet Knights’ upset, it was channeled into a first-round NCAA tournament matchup against a No. 16 Sacramento State (5-6-9) squad that had just squeaked into the tournament on the back of a Big Sky conference title.
USC displayed great resilience during the regular season when the Trojans needed to chase a goal late into games, scoring game-winners in the final 10 minutes against Ohio State and Penn State. They then knocked out Ohio State in overtime in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.
This time, the Trojans put their foot on the gas and never eased off. USC crushed Sacramento State with a commanding performance that left no doubt as to the possibility of an upset: it wasn’t going to happen.
“I wanted the team to know if they can score early, that’s great. But if they don’t, they don’t need to hit the panic button,” USC head coach Jane Alukonis said. “I told them yesterday that it might take 30 minutes, but every time we have an attempt on goal, we applaud the person, we applaud the team and we go for the next one.”
It only took four minutes instead of 30 for USC to score its first, having been awarded a penalty kick when a Sacramento State defender illegally collided with senior midfielder Maria Alagoa in the box.
Instead of one of USC’s usual goalscorers taking the spot kick, senior defender Brooklyn Courtnall stepped up and scored, picking her corner and striking the ball decisively into the bottom left, sending the Hornets’ redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier the wrong way.
Courtnall’s penalty gave the defender her first goal in a storied four-year career at USC, for which she’s appeared in 74 games.
“It wasn’t planned,” Courtnall said, referring to the penalty. “We huddled up and [senior midfielder Helena Sampaio] told me, ‘Brooklyn you need to take it.’ My teammates have been wanting me to take penalties for a while. They trusted me, so that gave me confidence to step up and score.”
Alukonis mentioned that she expected Sacramento State to be a pesky team and that the Hornets wouldn’t give up until the bitter end, especially after winning all three of their Big Sky Tournament games in penalty shootouts.
And pesky the Hornets were, at least in a different sense, as they fell into foul trouble early. By the final whistle, Sacramento State players accumulated 14 fouls and two yellow cards.
Another Sacramento State foul in the 13th minute led to an excellent scoring chance for Sampaio, who’s been USC’s set piece wizard this season. From around 25 yards out, Sampaio was lined up directly with the goal and could pick either side.
She decided to curl the ball around the wall of Hornets with her right foot, finding the bottom right corner to give USC a 2-0 lead in under 15 minutes.
From there, USC kept applying the pressure, trying to boost their advantage by an even greater margin in the first half.
Senior forward Simone Jackson added to the tally just three minutes after Sampaio’s free kick, with senior midfielder Aaliyah Farmer playing a ball into Jackson on the left wing. Jackson’s strong dribbling skills have been on display all season, and she managed to create just the sliver of space needed to release a powerful shot with her left foot. The ball rocketed across her body and into the bottom right corner to make it 3-0.
Farmer, who has largely played as a defensive midfielder this season, filled in at center back alongside Courtnall and was excellent. Jackson’s goal came from Farmer’s ability to dribble the ball forward out of the back and play an accurate pass towards Jackson.
”She’s really good in the air, really quick on her feet, just a dominant presence and very good on the ball,” Alukonis said. “She may end up playing center back at the professional level, so I think it’s good practice for her and really helps the team.”
The Trojans put on a shooting clinic the entire game, taking 20 shots total and placing 12 of them on target, with two more goals arriving in the second half. USC began the second 45 minutes just as the Trojans had been in the first: dominant. Senior forward Maile Hayes chipped away at Sacramento State’s defensive patience, drawing foul after foul. In the 49th minute, she broke through on the right side of the penalty box and found Alagoa with a low, short cross.
Knowing that the keeper was right in front of her, Alagoa decided to spice up her shot by flicking the ball past Palmatier with a backheel to make it 4-0.
Another team might’ve settled for a four-goal margin, but Alukonis mentioned to her team before the game that the largest win in NCAA first round history was 9-0. After every goal, the bench would keep saying “one more,” and while they fell short of a record, “one more” goal came in the final minute of play.
Freshman forward Jaiden Anderson played a short pass to sophomore midfielder Florianne Jourde, who took a left-footed, cross-body shot that nestled in the far right post, almost mimicking Jackson’s first-half goal. Jourde’s goal sealed the deal on a successful day for the Trojans’ offense.
USC will now face No. 8-seed Saint Louis in another new venue this season, the Orange County Great Park’s 5,000-seat soccer stadium. It doesn’t matter where the Trojans play their “home” games, because their mentality stays the same.
“We just have to bring our best game, and we’re used to playing different conferences and different styles,” Courtnall said. “Whatever any team has against us, we’ll be ready for it.”