CSUB Falls to Defending National Champion USC

LOS ANGELES, Calif. ? The CSUB women's soccer team fell to the fifth ranked USC Trojans, 7?0, Thursday afternoon on McAlister Field. The defending NCAA National Champion Trojans improved to 9?1?0 while the ?Runners fall to 4?8?1.

CSUB faced a relentless USC offensive attack and had difficulty setting up its offense. The ?Runners had to contend with a balanced Trojan attack and had trouble connecting on passes through the USC midfield.

CSUB's best chance of the first half came in the eighth minute of play, as sophomore Ryann Hernandez played a throw in to freshman Kassi Massey. Massey passed it back to Hernandez who fired a shot from the right side of the box. The shot got past USC's keeper Kristin Olsen but Stacey Strong was there to keep the ball out of the net and game tied at 0?0.

Amy Rodriguez, who won a gold medal in Beijing, recorded her first?career hat trick with strikes in the 16th, 69th and 89th minutes. Sophomore Ashli Sandoval scored twice and contributed two helpers. Alyssa Davila and Nini Loucks had the other two Trojan goals.

“We played well early and actually almost scored a goal on a shot the keeper had to make a great save on,” said Head Coach Nicole Van Dyke. “We are dissapointed in the amount of goals we conceded, but experience pays off and our freshmen and sophomores now know what level we want to get to.”

Marina Constantinou made seven saves for the ?Runners including a few nice diving stops. Brittany Massro, who came in for Olsen at the break, finished with one save for USC.

The ?Runners hit the road again on Sunday for a 1 p.m. match against the San Francisco Dons.

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