Written by Sarah Bergstrom, USC blog contributor
The USC women's lacrosse team is midway through their inaugural season and we checked in with head coach Lindsey Munday for a progress report. 
Sarah Bergstrom (SB): How would you evaluate the success of your team so far this year?
Lindsey Munday (LM): I think we've done really well. The biggest focus for us is improving every single day. From the beginning of the season until now we have improved. There are still things we need to work on. We are competing in games, which is good, but not great. We need to be able to string together a full 60 minutes in order to finish some of these games.
SB: What was your plan at the start of this first season?
LM: The biggest thing for us was to instill confidence in these girls. Even though they are young and they haven't played before, we believe in them so much. We believe in their talents and we think we can really do some great things this season. So our biggest thing as a coaching staff is to instill that belief, the belief that we can do some great things even though we are young and even though it's our first year. We don't want to settle on the same excuses of being too young to succeed.
SB: What were your expectations at the start of the season and how do you measure your team's success?
LM: Our goal is to compete every single day and play the style of lacrosse that we want to play. Win or lose, if you can walk off the field knowing that you fought together, played together, and stuck to the game plan, you can hold your head high. It's when the team deviates from the game plan or when the girls don't play together that we are unhappy with a loss. It's not necessarily about wins or losses but how we are playing, and for us, that's our goal.
SB: Have you found yourself implementing the same style of lacrosse that you learned as a player and coach at Northwestern?
LM: Obviously, Kelly Amonte Hiller is the best in the game. She's incredible and I've learned so much from her. There are absolutely things that are translating to our program here. But we also want to make our own mark. We want to do some things that are unique for USC. I think we have a great opportunity, both as a coaching staff and for the players here, to make this however we want. I think that makes this a very exciting time and I think the girls have really bought into making this their own and leaving a mark on this program.
SB: What is special about this team?
LM: We are fortunate to have really great girls on the team. In terms of the type of student-athletes that we have, I'm really proud of them for what they do in the classroom, off the field in community service, but also what they do on the lacrosse field. That's why we have such big expectations for this year. The girls have a really great mindset too. We're going out there and we're fighting and that's the biggest thing for us in terms of just going out there and playing for a full 60 minutes and not giving up.
SB: What are your goals for the rest of this season and also for the future of this program?
LM: Our biggest focus right now is our conference. The exciting thing is we are only halfway. Sometimes it feels like the season is almost over but we have so much left. Our biggest goal is to learn from the things that we have done well and the things that we need to continue to work on and get better. We need to really fight for our conference games and see what we can do from there. If you get in the conference tournament and win the conference tournament, you have an automatic bid to the NCAAs. So I think every single year conference has to be a major focus for us. But in general, we are only halfway, and if we can get the girls to really buy into improving, both individually and collectively, we are going to be in good shape.
