University Southern California Trojans
No. 1 USC Clashes With No. 4 Cal On Saturday
March 04, 2010 | Women's Water Polo
March 4, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
THIS WEEK
Newly crowned No. 1 USC brings a nine-game win streak into its next MPSF clash this weekend. Saturday's opponent is No. 4 Cal, which the Women of Troy beat last weekend en route to the UC Irvine Invitational championship. Now the Trojans and the Bears face off again in an MPSF match at McDonald's Swim Stadium. USC (11-1, 1-0 MPSF) host Cal (12-4, 2-1) at 1 p.m. on Saturday (March 6).
IN THE RANKINGS
USC took over as the nation's No. 1 team after standing at No. 2 in the rankings for five weeks. California remains at No. 4 in the nation this week.
BY THE NUMBERS
USC enters the week with Kally Lucas as its scoring leader with 19 goals to date. Joelle Bekhazi and Patricia Jancso are next with 18 each. Next in line with 16 goals, senior Kami Craig recently moved into the No. 10 all-time scoring slot in the Trojan history books, passing up fellow Cutino Award winning and Olympian Lauren Wenger. Craig now holds 132 career goals. As a team, USC is No. 1 among MPSF teams in defense, allowing just 4.9 goals per game. Offensively, USC is second in the conference with 12.1 goals per game.
LAST WEEK
USC rolled to five solid wins last week, opening things up with a 14-7 win over Hawai'i in the Trojans' MPSF opener, with Kami Craig scoring four goals to lead USC in the victory. From there, USC went to the UC Irvine Invitational as the second-seeded team. The Trojans beat Long Beach State 12-1 to start to tourney and then beat San Jose State 15-5 to earn their place in the semifinals, with 13 different Trojans scoring on the first day of play in Irvine. In the semifinals, Kally Lucas scored four for the Trojans as they powered past Cal with a 10-5 win for a spot in the title match against top-seeded Stanford. There, USC avenged its only previous loss of the season and captured a key tournament championship along the way as the Women of Troy slammed No. 1 Stanford with a 10-6 win. In handing the Cardinal their first loss of the year, USC has now won nine straight games since taking a 10-7 loss to Stanford in the Stanford Invitational semifinals earlier this month. Last week in Irvine, the Trojans piled up an 8-2 lead by halftime, and Patricia Jancso finished with a hat trick en route to USC's big title win over the Cardinal.
SCOUTING CAL
The No. 4 Golden Bears enter this week with a 12-4 overall record and 2-1 in MPSF play after finishing fourth at the UC Irvine Invitational last week. Cal beat UC Davis 13-5 and Hawai'i 8-5 before falling to USC 10-5 in the semis. In the third-place game, Cal was edged out by UCLA in the sixth sudden-death overtime, 7-6. Cal will play at the Cal Lutheran Tournament on Friday before facing the Trojans this week. The Bears are led in scoring by Emily Csikos with 42 goals. In goal, Stephanie Peckham averages 9.6 saves and 5.1 goals-against per game. USC is 21-17 all-time against Cal, having won the past 10 matches including the 10-5 win last weekend at the UC Irvine Invitational.
SWEEPS WEEK
After a winning week of MPSF and tournament competition, USC placed two players at the top of the list for MPSF weekly honors. Senior Kami Craig earned her third career MPSF Player of the Week award, and freshman Patricia Jancso was selected the MPSF Newcomer of the Week - a new award bestowed on the top first-year player among MPSF teams each week. The pair combined for five goals in USC's 10-6 upset of Stanford in the championship game at the UC Irvine Invitational. Craig opened the week with a four-goal game in USC's MPSF opener against Hawai'i, and she added four more goals during the UCI Invite. Jancso scored nine goals in five games this week, scoring in all five games. She topped out with a hat trick in the title match against Stanford.
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.
