Feb. 20, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

THIS WEEK: Next up on USC's schedule is the second big tournament of the season, as the Trojans prepare for competition at the UC Irvine Invitational, held Feb. 23-24 in Irvine, Calif. All but one of the 13 MPSF squads will be at the tourney, joined by LMU, UC Davis, UC San Diego and Michigan to round out the 16-team field. No. 3 USC (6-2) is bracketed with No. 6 San Diego State (10-0), No. 11 UC Davis and No. 15 Michigan. The Women of Troy will open the tourney against Michigan in an 11:30 a.m. match on Saturday (Feb. 23) at UC Irvine. USC will face either UC Davis or San Diego State later that day. Winners play at 4:30 p.m., and the losing teams from the first game face at 5:45 p.m. On Sunday, the semifinals are set for 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at UC Irvine. The championship game will be played at 5:15 p.m., following the 4 p.m. third-place match.

RANKINGS: USC remains the nation's No. 3 team for the second straight week. The UC Irvine Invitational will include 16 of the top-17 ranked teams in the nation. Bracket A contains No. 1 UCLA, No. 8 Arizona State, No. 9 LMU and No. 17 Cal State Northridge. Bracket B contains No. 2 Stanford, No. 7 San Jose State, No. 10 UC Irvine and No. 16 UC Davis, USC is in bracket C with No. 6 San Diego State, No. 11 UC Davis and No. 15 Michigan. And bracket D contains No. 4 Hawai'i, No. 5 Cal, No. 12 Long Beach State and No. 13 UC Santa Barbara.

LAST WEEK: USC captured two MPSF road wins last week, beating UC Irvine 10-3 and then traveling to ASU for an 11-5 victory. In both games, the USC defense shined. The Trojans shut out the Anteaters for the entire second half while powering in eight straight goals to get the win. Michelle Stein led USC with four goals, while goalie Tumua Anae tallied 10 saves in backing up the solid Trojan defense against UC Irvine. The following day, USC exacted some revenge against Arizona State, allowing only one goal through the first three periods of play en route to the 11-5 win. Again, Stein paced the Trojan offense, getting three goals, and Anae teamed up with Whitney Morgan for seven saves in the match to get USC to a 2-0 start in MPSF play. For her seven-goal outing across the two games, Michelle Stein earned her first career honors as the MPSF Mikasa Co-Player of the Week.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: USC was 6-2 as well going into last year's UC Irvine Invitational, and ended up finished third after a 15-9 win over No. 4 California in the third-place game. The Trojans had been edged out 10-8 in the semifinal by No. 2 Stanford -- which went on to win the tournament with an 8-4 victory over UCLA. USC had opened the tourney with a 14-5 win over UC Irvine, then beat UC Davis 15-2 to move into the semis against the Cardinal. Brittany Hayes was USC's top scorer at the invite with 10 goals, while Alexandra Kiss had six and Veronika Bartunkova added five.

LAST SEASON: In 2007, USC finished third in the NCAA Tournament and in the MPSF Tournament, losing to eventual national champion UCLA by a single goal in the semifinals at both tournaments. The Trojans went 22-6 overall last season and were 10-2 in MPSF action. The Women of Troy also expanded their home win streak to 38 straight games with their fifth consecutive undefeated season at McDonald's Swim Stadium.

LET THE BALANCE BEGIN: In the previous three seasons, the Trojans have tallied18 different scorers each year. In game one of 2008, USC made a big early dent in that mark with 10 Women of Troy scoring in USC's opener against Hartwick on Feb. 2, hinting at another widespread scoring attack from the Trojans in the season to come. The next game proved the point, with another 10-player production to get two more Trojans on the scoring charts this season for a total of 12 scorers on the year.

GETTING DEFENSIVE: The Trojans are just 0.02 out of the No. 1 slot in the conference's top defensive standings thanks to a strong start to 2008. Behind a potent tag-team in the cage of goalies Tumua Anae and Whitney Morgan, USC is averaging 4.88 goals against per game. Anae also is No. 2 in the MPSF on her own with 3.17 goals allowed per game.

SENIOR STRIKER: Just six games into the year, senior Veronika Bartunkova is already almost halfway to her goal total from last season. She is tied as USC's scoring leader with 15 goals, having struck in every game so far this year, including two hat tricks.

WHO'S BACK: Leading the Trojans into the 2008 season are a set of four experienced seniors ­-- Veronika Bartunkova, Miranda Nichols, Alison Riddle and Julie Spataru -- as well as 2006 All-American goalie Whitney Morgan and 2007 MPSF All-Freshman picks Forel Davies and Alexandra Kiss. Also entering another year of action at Troy are juniors Jordan Anae and Michelle Stein and sophomores Tumua Anae and Kally Lucas.

WHO'S NEW: USC has added a stack of new talent to its 2008 roster, including a set of last year's redshirt players. The Trojans' redshirt freshman are Tekla Beckmann, Shauna Letvin and Rebecca McCall. And splashing down for their first seasons at Troy as true freshmen are Kristen Dronberger, Katie Indvik, Jessica Kutcher, Stephanie Lavayen, Courtney Ray, Lindsey Urquhart and Sarah Van Norman.

PUTTING THE "USC" IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: As the 2008 Olympic Games draw near, so does the promise of Olympic dreams for several Trojans. USC athletes comprise almost a third of the current U.S. women's national team roster, as Team USA preps for Beijing. USC junior Kami Craig is taking time off from the pool at Troy this year in order to work toward the games alongside five former Trojans: Patty Cardenas, Erika Figge, Brittany Hayes, Moriah Van Norman and Lauren Wenger. Team USA also boasts 1996 USC grad and 2000 Olympian Bernice Orwig as an assistant coach. Over the summer, USC sophomore Forel Davies joined Craig as a member of the U.S. Junior National Team at the 2007 Junior World Championships in Portugal. To keep up with the Women of Troy in their pursuit of Olympic gold, check back to usctrojans.com and also at usawaterpolo.org.