University Southern California Trojans
No. 2 USC Visits No. 11 UC Irvine On Saturday
February 17, 2010 | Women's Water Polo
Feb. 17, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
THIS WEEK
The No. 2 USC women's water polo team takes a trip southward this weekend for a visit to UC Irvine in a nonconference clash. It'll be the first look at the No. 11 Anteaters for the Trojans this season. USC (5-1) will square off against host UC Irvine (5-3) at 1 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 19).
IN THE RANKINGS
USC picked up the No. 2 ranking in the national preseason poll and remains there for the fourth straight week. UC Irvine is ranked No. 11 this week.
BY THE NUMBERS
USC has a trio leading the scoring front so far this season with nine goals appiece credited to senior Forel Davies, junior Joelle Bekhazi and sophomore Nadia Dan. With eight goals to date, senior Kami Craig is just three goals away from cracking the all-time top-10 in career scoring. Craig has 124 with No. 10 Lauren Wenger standing at 127. As a team, USC is No. 1 among MPSF teams in defense, allowing just 5.0 goals per game. Offensively, USC is third in the conference with 11.5 goals per game.
LAST WEEK
USC got off to a sluggish start but rallied late and pitched a second-half shutout to take down No. 7 LMU 9-2 in the Trojans' home opener last week. Nadia Dan and Joelle Bekhazi each scored two goals to help the Trojans improve to 5-1 on the season. The Lions scored the only goal of the first period to give LMU the advantage early, but Joelle Bekhazi would put the Trojans on top for good with a goal just before the end of the second period to give the Women of Troy a 3-2 lead. USC's defense was the difference as LMU was held scoreless in the second half while the offense knocked in six more goals to round out a 9-2 win with goalie Tumua Anae finishing with eight saves.
SCOUTING UC IRVINE
The Anteaters are 5-3 overall after beating San Diego State 6-5 and UC San Diego 9-8 last week. Kat Plummer was named Big West Player of the Week for her five goals across the two games. Caitlin Haskell is UCI's top scorer so far with 13 goals. Morgan Vickers and Lauren Davis have shared time in goal with Vickers holding 18 saves and allowing 36 goals while Davis has 19 saves and 22 goals allowed. Davis had 10 saves in UCI's win over SDSU. USC is 13-6 all-time against UC Irvine, having won the past 16 games including a 13-6 victory over the Lions last season.
NOT A TYPO
It's been over a decade since the Trojans so decisively dominated their crosstown rival UCLA as they did at the Stanford Invitational. After streaking ahead of the Bruins 8-0 in the game, USC pinned up a 13-3 victory over UCLA in the third-place game at the tourney. The Trojans and Bruins played out one-goal games last season in three meetings, and UCLA had won 10 straight games until USC snapped the streak with an 8-7 win in their first clash last year. In 1999, USC beat UCLA 11-1.
WORLDLY ALL-AMERICANS
USC returns a fistful of All-Americans to the roster for 2009, and the group also hauls in added experience from international action during the offseason. 2008 U.S. Olympic silver-medalist and 2009 Cutino Award winner Kami Craig was joined by fellow Trojan All-Americans Tumua Anae, Forel Davies and Kristen Dronberger for U.S. National Team training. Anae, Davies and Dronberger all competed for Team USA at the Canada Cup in December, paying a visit to another USC All-American, Joelle Bekhazi, who is a member of the Canadian National Team. It was a Trojan All-American reunion again at the 2009 Holiday Cup as well, with Bekhazi again on the Canada roster and Craig and Davies capping up for the USA.
LAST SEASON
USC had a powerful 2009 season, racking up a 26-2 overall record that included a regular-season overtime loss to Stanford and a 5-4 loss to UCLA in the NCAA championship game. The Trojans made their third appearance in the national title match in four years and had beaten UCLA twice in one-goal games prior to the championship bout. The Women of Troy had beaten Stanford 5-4 in the MSP tournament title match to clinch the automatic seed to the NCAA Tournament with USC's first MPSF Championship since 2004 and second all-time. Kami Craig went on to win the Peter J. Cutino Award, and was one of six Trojans to be named an All-American.
