Here’s One USC Team That’s Good at Football

When a team loses nearly 50% of its production from the previous season, the outlook usually isn’t promising. And that seemed the case for the USC women’s soccer team this fall.

The Trojans had lost sophomore Isabelle Harvey to off-season knee surgery and hopes to get her back in time for Pacific 10 Conference play fell through. After a brief comeback two weeks ago, Harvey, the conference scoring champion last year, called it a season after only two games.

Still, somehow, the Trojans are sitting atop the Pac-10 standings at 2-0 and are 11-1-1 overall.

“I’m a little surprised to be where we are,” sophomore midfielder Kim Clark said. “We’re a young team, just now getting a feel of how to play well together.”

But Clark’s play has been instrumental. She leads the team in most offensive categories that probably would have been led by Harvey. Clark is tied with Kaylee Whitfield with eight goals, and leads with 11 assists and 27 points.

Not to be outdone, USC’s defense has given up only 10 goals in 13 games.

The addition of four Orange County freshmen--Andrea Warner, Megan Orach, Katie Ticehurst and Susie Mora--has provided depth.

“I can’t really put a finger on it,” Coach Jim Millinder said of his team’s success. “Everybody knew they had to pick it up [with Harvey out] and have done just that.”

The Trojans recorded perhaps their biggest road victories in their five-year history last weekend, defeating Stanford and California, each for the first time.

Clark scored two goals, one the game-winner in USC’s 3-2 victory over Stanford.

“Huge,” Millinder said about that victory. “Last year, we beat UCLA for the first time, but this was more monumental. Stanford has always been tough for us. We lost to them, 6-1, two years ago and 1-nil last year. Although their record doesn’t show it this year, they’re one hell of a team.”

The UCLA women’s soccer team also went to the Bay Area last weekend and beat Cal and Stanford, setting up a much-anticipated game with the Trojans on Oct. 26 at UCLA.

USC and UCLA will travel again this weekend, playing Oregon and Oregon State.

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On Oct. 24, UCLA women’s volleyball Coach Andy Banachowski will be inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Mass. Banachowski, the sport’s winningest women’s coach with 821 victories, has won six national championships and nine conference titles. His Bruins have been in postseason play in 29 of his 30 years.

On Friday, 25 of Banachowski’s best former players will be honored during UCLA’s match against USC at Pauley Pavilion, including six former Olympians and 15 former U.S. national team members.

While UCLA is celebrating its volleyball past, Long Beach State is enjoying the present. The 49ers (14-1) have a clean Big West Conference record at 6-0 and are ranked second in the nation for the fifth consecutive week. Long Beach survived a scare from UC Santa Barbara on Friday. Trailing, two games to one, the 49ers rallied to defeat the Gauchos in five games. Junior setter Misty May recorded her sixth triple-double.

Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount were happy to see the University of San Diego women’s volleyball team leave last weekend. After handing Pepperdine its first loss of the season Friday, the Toreros ended Loyola Marymount’s 34-match winning streak in the West Coast Conference on Saturday. It was the Lions’ first WCC loss in three years and first at home since November 1993. Loyola and Pepperdine are tied for second in the WCC standings, behind San Diego.

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In almost a duplicate of September’s Southern California men’s water polo tournament, 16 of the top 20 ranked teams will compete at Stanford in the Northern California tournament Saturday and Sunday.

UCLA, hoping to end a three-game losing streak, will play in the bracket with USC, the 1995 and ’96 tournament champion, and Long Beach State.

Pepperdine, winner of the Southern California tournament and a 6-4 winner over second-ranked Cal on Saturday, will try to do what USC did in ‘95, win both tournaments.