The USC women's soccer team concluded its impressive season under new head coach Keidane McAlpine in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday, falling to the No. 4 Pepperdine Waves in penalty kicks in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
"These are never easy. They're never anything that you can walk away from and feel just great about," said McAlpine. "In the same way, we are extremely proud of the season we had changing the direction of the program."
The Trojans battled toe-to-toe with the Waves in front of a feisty Pepperdine crowd in Malibu for 110 minutes before heading to penalty kicks to decide the outcome. Freshman Nicole Molen gave the Women of Troy the early lead when she scored her first career goal for USC off a tremendous corner from junior Jamie Fink. USC held the lead until the 70th minute when Pepperdine evened things out with a goal off of a rebound from senior goalie Caroline Stanley's save.
Both squads had plenty of opportunities in the second half and the two overtime periods; however, neither team could capitalize ultimately leading to the most heartbreaking way to decide a game: penalty kicks. Stanley saved the first Pepperdine attempt, but the Waves responded immediately with a block of their own. The Trojans ultimately fell 4-2 in PKs ending their season in devastating fashion.
Both squads had plenty of opportunities in the second half and the two overtime periods; however, neither team could capitalize ultimately leading to the most heartbreaking way to decide a game: penalty kicks. Stanley saved the first Pepperdine attempt, but the Waves responded immediately with a block of their own. The Trojans ultimately fell 4-2 in PKs ending their season in devastating fashion.
"In regards to the game, we fought hard - that's a long game when you go into double overtime and then PKs, but the game is cruel," said the senior goalkeeper. "It really doesn't judge the talent of this squad. I'm not worried about them at all next year. In fact, I think they're only going to go up and rebuild this program into a dynasty."
The Women of Troy finished the 2014 season with a trip to the NCAA tournament and a winning season for the first time since 2010 - a goal of the new coaching staff. After finishing 11th in the PAC-12 last year, no one really considered a trip to the NCAA tournament in 2014, especially with the implementation of a brand new coaching staff.
"When we looked at the roster, we knew it had a lot of talent on it. The question was could we get them to believe in the vision, get them to believe in each other, get them to commit to being great teammates because we believe it starts with great chemistry," said the head coach.
Well, the girls bought into McAlpine's system finishing fourth in the PAC-12 under the leadership of the reigning PAC-12 Coach of the Year. The Women of Troy set a school record for the best start - opening the season with six wins and two ties and prior to Saturday, they had 41 goals which surpasses the 31 goals for all of the 2013 season.
Though the 2014 season just concluded on Saturday, McAlpine is already preparing for his sophomore season focusing on the growth potential of his young team. However, the Women of Troy do lose four seniors in goalie Caroline Stanley, forward Jessica Musmanno, midfielder Alex Quincey and defender Heather Davis.
"We ask them to get better every day. We ask them to just grind every day. Now that they've been with us for a year, there's some understanding of expectations," said McAlpine. "We're just going to continue to clean up details, clean up technically. We return a large group of women, so we expect big things."
Here are John McGillen's photos from the devastating first-round loss to Pepperdine...
