USC soccer’s offense was flying high during its first three games, scoring 11 goals while cruising to three easy wins.
Now, it’s completely sputtered. The No. 16 Trojans were upset by Washington 1-0 Thursday at Rawlinson Stadium in its first game of Big Ten Conference play, falling to 3-2-1.
“We need to continue to understand the expectation in terms of Trojan spirit and how much we need to fight, battle and compete,” USC head coach Jane Alukonis said. “There’s little defensive tweaks that we’re going to have to make, but the tweaks and tactics are simple fixes. The effort comes down to individual determination and collective as well.”
Washington has only been shut out once this season, but besides that they’ve scored in the first half of every game this season.
The pattern continued against USC with the Huskies scoring the game’s lone goal in the 29th minute. Junior midfielder Samiah Shell played a gorgeous through ball to sophomore forward Alex Buck.
Buck then rounded charging USC graduate goalkeeper Bella Grust outside of the 18-yard box to her right to finish in front of a wide open net.
Washington outshot USC 9-6 and 3-1 on shots on goal, with USC’s only real chance coming from a shot at the top of the box in the 54th minute from junior forward Maribel Flores that went straight into the hands of sophomore goalkeeper Tanner Ijmas.
One big glaring issue statistically for USC is that it had 9 corners on the game, but failed to convert any into real scoring chances due to a lot of the balls being sent too far over in the air.
The loss against Washington comes after USC was humiliated at home last Thursday against No. 1 Stanford 5-1, with four Cardinal goals coming in the second half.
Granted, Alukonis made changes on the backline to face Washington, including switching the positions of sophomore wing back Lily Biddulph to center back and sophomore midfielder Eleanor Morrissey to wing back.
“Eleanor is just really technical on the ball in play and that’s helpful to have out on the field,” Alukonis said. “We thought that she did a good job with a couple different rotations in the way that we were hoping to play. Lily is just quite quick and newer to the position and doing the best that she can, but provides some good coverage when we need it.”
Alukonis also started senior defender Molly McDougal at the other wing back spot while freshman midfielder Alexandra Larsson logged her second career start and impressed.
Larsson played deeper as a central defensive midfielder, displaying maturity and physicality when in possession. Larsson was tough to throw off when she had the ball, including in one instance where she made a Washington player fall to the ground while trying to tackle her, yet USC was awarded a free kick due to the harsh tackle from the Huskies.
“She had a great game and she really put herself out there,” Alukonis said of Larsson. “I think she has a really bright future with us. It took a little bit to work her in because she was unable to get here in time for preseason just based on visa stuff, but happy to have her and she made a really big impact.”
Larsson’s play was huge as well due to the fact that graduate midfielder Sophia Cavaliere left the game right at the beginning of the second half due to a knee injury.
If Cavaliere is out for an extended period of time, it’s a big blow to USC. She’s played the sixth most minutes on the team after being one of the top players in the transfer portal this offseason coming from Columbia. Cavaliere is also USC’s most experienced outfield player and her presence will be missed if the injury is indeed serious.
USC will try and rebound now during the team’s first road trip of the season. The Trojans travel to Michigan to face the Wolverines next Thursday and Michigan State on Sunday.