No. 4 USC Women's Soccer Opens Big Ten Tournament on Monday

THIS WEEK - The No. 4 USC women's soccer team plays its opening game of the Big Ten Conference Tournament against Ohio State on Monday at 10 a.m. PT in Minnesota. After winning the Big Ten regular season title, the Trojans are the top seed in the tournament.

HOW TO FOLLOW - Sunday's match will be broadcasted live on BTN+. Links for the broadcast and live stats can be found on the women's soccer schedule page at USCTrojans.com. In-game updates will also be available on X (formerly Twitter) by following @USC_Wsoccer.

SOCIAL MEDIA - Keep up with everything USC women's soccer this year by following the Trojans on all of their social media platforms. You can follow @USCWsoccer on Instagram, @uscwomenssoccer on Tik Tok @USC_Wsoccer on X, and like USC Women's Soccer on Facebook.

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. OSU - The Trojans and Buckeyes have played twice before, splitting the two matches (1-1), with their most recent match coming just two weeks ago, when the Trojans defeated the Buckeyes 1-0 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. The Trojans dominated with a 12-1 shot advantage in that match, and got a goal in the 83rd minute from Simone Jackson.

BIG TEN POSTSEASON AWARDS - The Big Ten Postseason awards were released this week and 10 Trojans were honored. Helena Sampaio was named Midfielder of the Year, Laurence Gladu Goalkeeper of the Year and Jane Alukonis was named Coach of the Year. Four Trojans earned All-Big Ten first team honors, with Gladu and Sampaio joined by Maile Hayes and Brooklyn Courtnall. Maria Alagoa was named to the All-Big Ten second team and Kayla Colbert and Simone Jackson earned third-team recognition. Faith George and Ines Derrien were named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.

BIG TEN TOURNAMENT- After winning the regular season title with an undefeated conference season, the Trojans are the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Conference Tournament. The 10-team tournament is single elimination, with the 7-10 seeds playing to see who faces the top two seeds. The initial rounds of the tournament will be played at the University of Minnesota, before moving to CITYPARK in Missouri for the semi-finals and finals.

RPI RANKING - New RPI rankings were released after the Trojans won the Big Ten regular season title last week and USC checked in at No. 5. USC is one of three Big Ten programs ranked inside the Top 10, with Penn State No. 9 and Iowa No. 10. USC's lone loss came over a month ago at Stanford, who checks in at No. 8 on the newest RPI list.

COACHES POLL - The Trojans broke into the Top 4 in the Top 25 this week for the first time this season, checking in at No. 4 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll. USC started the season ranked No. 23, but fell out of the polls after a draw in their opener. Since then, USC's only loss has been to then-No. 1 ranked Stanford. Last week the Trojans were No. 6.

D1 COMMITTEE'S TOP 16 - The D1 committee released their postseason Top 16 projections two weeks ago with USC checking in at No. 11. The committee uses adjusted Rating Percentage Index (RPI), head-to-head competition, results versus common opponents and strength of schedule to determine their Top 16 rankings. Along with the Trojans, there were 4 other Big Ten teams also in the Top 13 of the rankings. Since the committee's Top 16 was released, USC has gone 3-0 with wins over three ranked opponents.

B1G CHAMPIONSHIP WIN VS. UCLA - USC capped off an unbeaten Big Ten regular season with a 1-0 win over UCLA to claim the Big Ten title on Sunday. Maile Hayes scored in the 36th minute and the Trojan defense shut down the UCLA attack as the Trojans claimed the first Big Ten crown for any USC sport. The USC defense and goalkeeper Laurence Gladu posted their ninth shutout of the year, holding the Bruins to a season-low five shots. It was the first outright conference title in program history, with the only other being a three-way shared Pac-10 title in 1998. USC's 10-0-1 Big Ten record marks the first undefeated conference season in program history and sets a new program record for conference wins.

PLAYER/TEAM NOTES:

Maile Hayes leads the Trojans in points and goals with 18 points, 8 goals, and 2 assists. This past Sunday she scored the game-winning goal vs. UCLA leading her to be named this weeks Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. Against Oregon two weeks ago, she scored twice, which was her fourth career 2 goal game. Her two goal performance led her to be named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. She has 9 points in the last six games for the Trojans.
Maria Alagoa and Helena Sampaio are tied for second in points on the team having 12 points. Alagoa has 5 goals and 2 assists on the year with 8 points in the Trojans last seven matches. Sampaio has 3 goals and a team leading 6 assists. Her most recent score coming Sunday against Penn State, where she scored a game winning goal with 20 seconds left, on a free kick from 25 yards out. With her clutch goal, Sampaio was awarded with the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week this week. She added an assist in the Trojans win vs. UCLA this past week.
Kayla Colbert is third on the team in points with 11. Colbert has 4 goals and 3 assists. Colbert Added 2 assists in the game at Illinois three weeks ago.
Senior Simone Jackson scored her second goal of the year on two weeks ago against Ohio State, that turned out to be the game winning goal. Last season Jackson had an impressive Junior year and was 5th on the team with 10 total points (5 goals) while being named to the All-Pac-12 second team.
Freshman Faith George has 9 points. George has 3 goals and 3 assists, scoring her third goal of the year against Illinois three weeks ago.
Freshman Ines Derrien was recognized with the Big Ten Freshman of the Week award two weeks ago after scoring her first collegiate goal on Sunday at Northwestern. After being fouled inside the box, Derrien was rewarded with a penalty kick, which she scored. Derrien has appeared in every match so far for the Trojans.
Freshman Jaiden Anderson scored her first goal of the season three weeks ago vs. Wisconsin. Anderson has appeared in 15 of the 16 games this season for the Trojans and has added 2 assists to her lone goal.
Goalie, Laurence Gladu, is the only Trojan to play all 1,530 minutes so far this season. Brooklyn Courtnall leads the way for field players with 1,446 minutes played.
Gladu's nine shutouts on the year are the 2nd most in the Big Ten and 15th most in the NCAA. She opened Big Ten conference play with three straight shutouts. In wins over three straight ranked opponents to end the regular season, her only goal allowed was a PK.
USC's 31 goals have been scored by 10 different players. The Trojans also have points from 10 different players.
USC has outshot 12 of their 17 opponents and on the year has outshot opponents by a total of 226-133.
The Trojans are riding an 11-match unbeaten streak into the Big Ten Tournament and a 7-match winning streak.

WIN VS. NO. 15 OHIO STATE - The Trojans and Buckeyes went 83 minutes scoreless until Simone Jackson scored to lead USC past Ohio State 1-0, Thursday night at BMO Stadium. Jackson was taken down in the area to earn the Trojans a penalty kick and after Maria Alagoa's PK attempt was saved, Jackson was first to the rebound, firing it home for the game-winner. USC held the Buckeyes to without a shot in the first half and overall outshot the visitors 12-1, earning the eighth shutout of the season for Laurence Gladu.

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Players Mentioned

Maria Alagoa

Jaiden Anderson

Kayla Colbert

Brooklyn Courtnall

Ines Derrien

Faith George

Laurence Gladu

Maile Hayes

Simone Jackson

Helena Sampaio