University Southern California Trojans
No. 3 USC Stays Home, Hosts Pacific On Friday
March 07, 2007 | Women's Water Polo
March 7, 2007
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THIS WEEK: The No. 3 Women of Troy aim to keep that home winning streak alive and well when they host Pacific on Friday (March 9) at 5 p.m. at McDonald's Swim Stadium. USC holds a 33-game winning streak in its home pool, dating back to 2002.
RANKINGS: USC (10-3, 3-1 MPSF) is ranked No. 3 in the national poll this week. Pacific (5-8, 0-4) is unranked this week.
LAST WEEK: USC held off No. 5 UC Irvine in the Trojans' home opener at McDonald's Swim Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Trojan senior Brittany Hayes notched her seventh hat trick of the season, leading eight USC scorers on the day, with two-goal games from Kami Craig and Miranda Nichols. USC goalies Whitney Morgan and Tumua Anae split time in the cage, grabbing six saves apiece. The Women of Troy had a strong start and finish to the game defensively, allowing just a single goal in the first and fourth periods of play. USC led 5-1 after the first quarter and 7-4 at halftime on the way to the Trojans' 10th win of the season.
SCOUTING PACIFIC: The Tigers are 5-8 overall and 0-4 in MPSF play after falling 13-6 to UC Santa Barbara and beating Occidental 14-7 and Cal State Monterey Bay 19-15 last week. Sarah Harris is the MPSF's leading scorer with 54 goals (4.15 gpg), followed by third-ranked Kellie Fletcher with 31 goals (2.38 pg). Goalie Jocelyn Gray averages 7.69 saves per game and 10.85 goals against per game. USC is 13-0 all-time against the Tigers, posting a 19-2 win in the last meeting in 2006.
STARS (& STRIPES) AT TROY: The Trojans boast the most current national teamers on any collegiate roster this season. All told, four Women of Troy are doing double duty this season as USC stars also shining as members of the U.S. National Team. Seniors Patty Cardenas, Erika Figge and Brittany Hayes along with sophomore 2-meter powerhouse Kami Craig have been training and competing with Team USA for several summers now and are also vying for ultimate spots on the United State Olympics Team for the 2008 Games in Beijing. The four current Trojans regularly join USC grads Moriah Van Norman and Lauren Wenger as members of the U.S. National Team, which also boasts 1996 USC grad and 2000 Olympian Bernice Orwig as an assistant coach. USC sophomore Michelle Stein also has been spending time capped up in red, white and blue as a member of the U.S. Junior National Team. The Senior National Teamers clashed March 3 in a scrimmage between USC and Team USA at McDonald's Swim Stadium, marking a send-off for Cardenas, Craig and Hayes as they join the U.S. squad at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia during March. Figge -- USC's second leading scorer -- has been named an alternate and will remain with the Women of Troy throughout the season. She stands as the Trojans second leading scorer with 20 goals so far on the year, averaging 1.54 goals per game.
STARTING STRONG: USC senior Brittany Hayes opened 2007 with a bang, claiming MPSF Mikasa Co-Player of the Week honors in the first week of action following her 10-goal performance at the Stanford Invitational and a hat trick to start the year in a win over LMU. She's now tied at third in the MPSF in scoring with 31 goals (2.38 per game).
FIRST THING'S FIRST: Three Trojan newcomers wasted no time making an impact for USC in their freshman seasons at Troy. First-year backup goalie Tumua Anae saw time in the cage in USC's opener at LMU and jumped in for two more halves of play at the Stanford Invitational, tallying nine saves and seven goals against in her first three games in the cage for the Trojans. On the offensive end, freshmen Alexandra Kiss and Kally Lucas also got to the back of the net for USC in the season opener. Kiss drilled out a hat trick to start off her USC career, and Lucas added one goal. Kiss is now third on the team in scoring with 18 goals, and Lucas has scored five. Freshman Forel Davies also recently knocked in her first multiple-goal game of her career with a pair of goals in USC's win in the third-place game vs. Cal on Feb. 24 at the UC Irvine Invitational, where redshirt freshman Mary Cousineau also tallied her first career goal at Troy vs. Long Beach State on Feb. 23.
SENIOR STRENGTH: The talent and leadership in this year's senior class quite possibly outweighs all others to come through the USC waters. Erika Figge and Brittany Hayes have been starting since their freshman years, and Marina Mayer and Jana Wenger were regulars in that 2004 rotation that won the NCAA Championship to start those four Trojans' careers off on a winning note. Denise Madrid also factored into USC's 2004 season as a freshman. Patty Cardenas may a relative newcomer to the Trojan roster, but her experience, talent and value to the program has lifted the transfer from Golden West to an immediate mainstay in the starting lineup since joining the Women of Troy in 2006.
CLASS WARS: Vying for that status level that the USC seniors hold are the USC juniors on the roster. It's another talented set of players who are helping to anchor the Trojans' powerful monopoly on returning experience. Miranda Nichols was named to the MPSF All-Freshman Team in 2005, and she returns as a junior regular in the starting lineup. Veronika Bartunkova also continues to factor into USC's offensive onslaught along with transfer Carolyn Conway in her second season at Troy and USC's driving force of depth, Alison Riddle and Julie Spataru.
TAKE ME HOME: The depths of McDonald's Swim Stadium have been good to the Women of Troy. USC has won 33 straight games at its home pool, dating back to a 7-6 MPSF Semifinal loss to UCLA on April 27, 2002, when USC last hosted the MPSF Tournament. The Trojans went 7-0 at home in 2003, 7-0 in 2004, 8-0 in 2005 and 9-0 in 2006.
VAVIC ON DECK: Head coach Jovan Vavic 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 Men's Water Polo Championship and was named 2005 National Coach of the Year. For the first time in school history, Vavic saw two of his players earn collegiate water polo's highest honor, as Juraj Zatovic and Lauren Wenger made it a Trojan sweep of the Peter J. Cutino Award for the 2005 men's and 2006 women's seasons. Vavic brings a 277-98 (.739) all-time record on the women's side into the 2007 season -- his 13th as the women's head coach. Since 1999 when the program was fully funded, Vavic's record is 207-31 (.870) with an even more impressive 159-20 (.888) record in his last six seasons. He was named the National and MPSF Coach of the Year in 1999 after winning USC's first national championship and then again in 2004 after USC became the first team in NCAA Championship history to go undefeated (29-0) during the regular season. Vavic oversaw the team's move from Division II in 1995 to Division I in 1996.
2006 RECAP: Last season, USC raced undefeated through the regular season and finished second in the NCAA Tournament, falling in the last second to UCLA in a 9-8 decision that left the Trojans with a 27-3 overall record. USC held a 26-game win streak before tripping up in the MPSF Semifinal against Hawai'i. Senior 2-meter defender Lauren Wenger became the fourth USC woman to win the Peter J. Cutino Award.
