No. 1 USC Faces Three Teams In Two Days
March 29, 2006 | Women's Water Polo
March 29, 2006
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THIS WEEK: The top-ranked Women of Troy finish off their six-game road stretch with three matches in two days. The Trojans first square off against No. 11 UC Irvine at 5 p.m. on Friday (March 31) before heading farther south to San Diego on Saturday (April 1) for a doubleheader. USC plays host No. 7 San Diego State at noon, and then faces No. 13 UC San Diego a half-hour later at approximately 1:30 p.m. The UC Irvine and San Diego State matches are both a part of MPSF competition.
RANKINGS: USC (18-0, 7-0 MPSF) remains the nation's top-ranked team for the seventh straight week. UC Irvine (12-9, 2-4) is ranked No. 11, San Diego State (18-5, 4-2) ranks No. 7, and UC San Diego is No. 13.
WEEKEND RECAP: The No. 1 Women of Troy ballooned their undefeated record to 18 straight with a pair of road wins last weekend. USC began with a 10-5 win over No. 12 Long Beach State behind a four-goal day from Brittany Hayes and three goals from Moriah Van Norman. The Trojans then headed to Arizona for another MPSF clash against Arizona State. There, USC posted a 13-6 victory after six different Trojans scored a pair of goals. Goalie Whitney Morgan tallied 15 saves across the two games.
USC VS. UC IRVINE: USC is 12-3 all-time against the Anteaters, having won the past 12 games against UCI including wins of 14-2 and 11-5 last season. UCI recently beat Maryland 10-4 and lost to San Diego State 10-5 last weekend. Gianna Rossi and Robyn Kaake lead the Anteaters in scoring this season with 37 and 35 goals, respectively. Goalie Lauren Machanis leads the MPSF with 9.65 saves per game.
USC VS. SAN DIEGO STATE: USC is 21-9 all-time against the Aztecs and are on a 19-game winning streak after posting an 11-4 win over SDSU earlier this season at the Santa Barbara Tournament. The Aztecs carry a nine-game winning streak into their Friday match against California before facing the Trojans. They recently won the LMU Invitation and also beat UC Irvine 10-5 and Maryland 12-6 in their winning run. SDSU is led in scoring this season by Rachel Serna and Stacy Werner with 32 and 29 goals, respectively. Goalie Sarah Kilgore averages 7.0 saves per game for the Aztecs.
USC VS. UC SAN DIEGO: USC is 7-4 all-time against the Tritons, having won the past seven games against UCSD. The last meeting between the two was a 14-6 USC win in the 2004 Long Beach State Tournament. UCSD was off last weekend, but most recently beat Colorado State 9-2 and lost to LMU 10-9.
GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK: USC has taken care of business during the second half of big games so far this season, having locked away three big wins now over Stanford and another over UCLA with stingy late-game defense. The Women of Troy didn't give up more than a single goal in the final frame during all four games at the Stanford Invitational, and utilized a third-quarter shutdown technique in the Gaucho Invitational with just two goals allowed during the third period throughout the tourney. In the fourth frame against UCLA, the Trojans pitched a shutout while tacking up a pair of goals of their own to lock away USC's first tournament championship and snap UCLA's 39-game winning streak. In the next title match, the Trojans silenced the Cardinal in the third on the way to a comeback win for USC's second tournament crown of the year. Thenext time the Trojans and the Cardinal tangled, USC did the same, stifling Stanford again in the third during MPSF play for USC's third win over the Cardinal this year.
HAYES CLEARS A PATH: Junior lefty Brittany Hayes is one of USC's most dangerous counterattack threats, and she's also rapidly climbing the USC scoring charts. She's the Trojans' top scorer again this season with 34 goals, and with five goals last weekend, she moved up to No. 6 on the all-time career scoring list with 144 goals. After a back-to-back hat tricks in wins over Stanford and San Jose State, Hayes was named MPSF Player of the Week.
PATTY'S DAY: Junior Patty Cardenas didn't waste much time proving herself as an impact player in her first year with the Women of Troy. A newcomer from Golden West College whose transfer was kept on hold for a season, Cardenas turned plenty of heads at the Stanford Invitational when she made UCLA heads spin with a four-goal outburst against the Bruins that helped the Trojans clamp down on the tournament championship. For her efforts at the tourney, Cardenas was named MPSF Player of the Week.
MORGAN ON HER MARK: Redshirt freshman goalie Whitney Morgan saw the first action of her Trojan career at the Stanford Invitational. Morgan capped up for all four games and set a high mark for her USC career with 10 saves against Michigan on Feb. 12. She finished the tournament averaging 6.5 saves per game. The very next weekend at Cal, Morgan matched her career mark with 10 saves against the Bears, and a week after that she had set a new high for herself with 12 saves in the Gaucho Invitational championship match against Stanford. She ranks 21st in the nation with 109 saves, and was named MPSF Co-Player of the Week folllowing her 35-save performance at the Gaucho Invitational.
SUPER SENIORS: Five Women of Troy are closing out their USC playing careers this season: Alex Lopez, Anna Pardo, Bianca Simonetti, Moriah Van Norman and Lauren Wenger. Lopez and Simonetti both redshirted a season at Troy, but will graduate after the 2006 season. Pardo entered USC as a sophomore from Spain and has been a vital member of USC's gameplan as a staunch defender and powerful scorer with 71 career goals. Van Norman remains USC's go-to player at two meters and sits as the Trojans' top scorer this year and all-time fifth leading scorer with 192 career goals. Wenger was USC's second leading scorer as a junior and boasts 113 career goals.
INTERNATIONAL WATERS: Several members of the 2006 Trojan squad have been spending busy summers well outside the confines of Troy. USC sent four current players to the 2005 World Championships -- three as members of the USA's silver-medalist squad, and one member of Spain's national team. Senior Anna Pardo has played in two world championships with Spain as a mainstay on the Spanish national team, and sophomore Veronika Bartunkova is a member of the Czech Republic's national team. Seniors Moriah Van Norman and Lauren Wenger and junior Erika Figge all helped the U.S. National Team claim silver at this 2005 Worlds. That U.S. threesome as well as junior Brittany Hayes and freshman Kami Craig all continue to train with the U.S. National Team as Team USA works toward a third Olympic medal at the 2008 Games.
COMMERCE CONNECTIONS: Commerce Aquatics has been providing a solid water polo foundation to residents of the City of Commerce, and current Trojans Patty Cardenas, Alex Lopez and Denise Madrid all have reaped the benefits of Commerce's water polo support system. With Cardenas' transfer to USC this season, she joins her two club and high school teammates as Women of Troy hailing from Commerce and Bell Gardens High School.
VAVIC ON DECK: Head coach Jovan Vavic, one of the top water polo coaches in the country, serves a dual role as the head coach of both the USC men's and women's teams. He has been with the USC women's program since its inception in 1995, and has led his men's and women's teams to national championships twice in the same school year (the men in 1998 and 2003 and the women in 1999 and 2004). In his 11th season at the helm of the men's program, Vavic led the Trojans to the 2005 NCAA championship. His 2006 Women of Troy have an equally good opportunity to grab their third national championship this season. Vavic brings a 250-95 all-time record on the women's side into his the 2006 season -- his 12th as the women's head coach. Vavic pulled a coaching double sweep when he was named 2003 National Coach of the Year and MPSF Coach of the Year for the men and 2004 National Coach of the Year and MPSF Coach of the Year for the women, and he was named 2005 MPSF and National Coach of the Year once again on the men's side following the Trojans' most recent NCAA title. His 2004 women's team became the first team in NCAA Championship history to go undefeated (29-0) during the regular season.
IN THE CARDS: Then ranked No. 2, the Women of Troy started the 2006 season off right by powering its way to the Stanford Invitational championship with a 10-8 win over top-ranked UCLA. The No. 2 Women of Troy clamped down on the Bruins in the fourth quarter, holding UCLA scoreless while punching in two more goals to break an 8-8 tie and nail down the tournament crown. The Trojans were equally effective during group play, as they rolled through all comers to gain momentum for the title match. The Trojans got a powerful start to the Invitational action with a 13-4 win over No. 11 San Jose State in the morning, then notched a 9-7 victory over host Stanford in the afternoon. To close out group play, USC went up against No. 7 Michigan on Sunday morning and took an 8-0 lead in the first quarter to lock away a 16-3 win. Moriah Van Norman and Patty Cardenas each hit high marks during that weekend, as Van Norman punched in four goals against Michigan, and Cardenas matched that output with a four-goal performance against UCLA. The win marked USC's second Stanford Invitational victory. The Trojans last won the tourney crown in 2004 when the Women of Troy went on to win the NCAA Championship.
GET A GAUCHO: The Trojans rolled through the Gaucho Invitational -- which included all 16 of the top-16 teams in the country. Stingy defense and a well-balanced offense were the themes once again for USC, as the Trojans outscored their opponents 47-18 in the tournament. USC opened with a 17-4 win over Brown behind a four-goal game from junior Erika Figge and 10 saves by goalie Whitney Morgan. Next was an 11-4 win over No. 9 San Diego State with a hat trick by freshman Kami Craig to earn USC a place in the semifinals. There, the Trojans faced No. 5 Hawai'i, and posted a 13-5 victory behind another Craig hat trick and eight different scorers for the Trojans. That squared up USC against No. 3 Stanford. The Cardinal caught the Women of Troy off-balance in the first period and took a 3-0 lead, but the Trojans powered back and allowed just two more Stanford goals on the way to a 6-5 win. Morgan tacked up 12 saves in the win, and senior Lauren Wenger led USC with two goals while also doing her fair share on the defensive end in the field. Craig finished the tourney as USC's leading scorer with eight goals, while Figge and Wenger added six each, and senior Moriah Van Norman scored five. Morgan capped up for all four games in the cage and tallied 35 saves in the tournament -- including that career-high 12-save performance against the Cardinal. For her efforts in goal, Morgan was named MPSF Co-Player of the Week -- her first honor and USC's second of the year.
