No. 4 USC Women's Soccer Faces Rutgers in Big Ten Semis

THIS WEEK - The No. 4 USC women's soccer team plays in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament against Rutgers on Thursday at 12 p.m. PT/2 p.m. CT, at CITYPARK Field in St. Louis, Mo. With a win, the Trojans will advance to the Tournament Finals on Sunday, playing the winner of UCLA and Washington. 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 Big Ten Network. 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. RUTGERS - The Trojans and Scarlet Knights have met once before, in 2004 when the Trojans won in double overtime, 3-2. The teams traded goals with Rutgers scoring first, but the game winning goal came in the 105th minute in double overtime to give the Trojans the win in the non-conference match. Thursday will be the first time the programs meet as conference foes, after not playing each other during the regular season.

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, in the most recent rankings, 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. Before breaking into the Top 4, 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.

QUARTERFINAL WIN VS. OSU - Jaiden Anderson scored just over a minute into overtime leading USC past Ohio State, 1-0, and into the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Monday. The Trojans by far had the bulk of the opportunities through regulation, outshooting the Buckeyes 18-3 and putting six shots on target After a scoreless 90 minutes, Anderson was able to redirect a shot over the goal line at the 1:26 mark of the first overtime. Laurence Gladu made the only save required of her to push it into overtime and then did not face a shot in the extra period as she recorded her 10th shutout of the year. The overtime win extended the Trojans' winning streak to eight games and their unbeaten streak to 12.

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 19 points, 8 goals, and 3 assists. On Monday against Ohio State, Hayes had an assist on the game-winning goal in overtime. Last week, she scored the game-winning goal vs. UCLA leading her to be named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. Against Oregon three 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 10 points in the last seven games for the Trojans. She was named to the All-Big Ten first team.
Maria Alagoa is second in points on the team having 13 points. Alagoa has 5 goals and 3 assists on the year with 9 points in the Trojans last eight matches. Alagoa added her most recent point on Monday with an assist to the game-winning overtime goal against Ohio State. She was also named to the All-Big Ten second team.
Helena Sampaio is third in points on the team, with 3 goals and a team leading 6 assists. Her most recent score coming 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 last week. She was named Big Ten Midfielder of the Year, as well as All-Big Ten first team honors.
Kayla Colbert is fourth 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. She recieved All-Big Ten third team honors.
Senior Simone Jackson scored her second goal of the year three 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. She was named to the All-Big Ten third team this year.
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. She was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.
Freshman Ines Derrien was recognized with the Big Ten Freshman of the Week award three 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. She was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.
Freshman Jaiden Anderson scored hersecond goal of the season on Monday, a game-winning goal in overtime in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament. Her first goal of the season came a month ago vs. Wisconsin. Anderson has appeared in 17 of the 18 games this season for the Trojans and has added 2 assists to her 2 goals.
Goalie, Laurence Gladu, is the only Trojan to play all 1,622 minutes so far this season. Brooklyn Courtnall leads the way for field players with 1,538 minutes played.
Gladu's ten shutouts on the year are the 2nd most in the Big Ten and 10th most in the NCAA. She opened Big Ten conference play with three straight shutouts. In wins over four straight ranked opponents to end the regular season and begin postseason play, her only goal allowed was a PK. Gladu was named Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year.
USC's 32 goals have been scored by 10 different players. The Trojans also have points from 10 different players.
USC has outshot 13 of their 18 opponents and on the year has outshot opponents by a total of 245-136.
The Trojans are currently riding a 12-match unbeaten streak and a 8-match winning streak. The Trojans have not been trailing in a match since September 8th, where they fell 2-1 to then No. 1 Stanford.

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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