In a dramatic regular-season finish, the USC women’s lacrosse team earned a 12-11 victory over San Diego State to seize fourth place in the final Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings and claim the final spot in the conference postseason tournament. In their inaugural season, the Women of Troy (8-9, 5-3 MPSF) finished three spots higher than the league’s coaches had predicted in a preseason poll as they wrestled away the win from the Aztecs (8-8, 3-5 MPSF) at Aztec Lacrosse Field on Saturday, April 27.
“For us, our main goal has been improving throughout the year, and we did that,” said head coach Lindsey Munday. “There was a stretch in the middle of the season where we had a couple of losses in games that we maybe could have won. I’m really proud of the girls for not shutting down, then. We’re really excited to have the opportunity to play in the MPSF tournament. It’s really special and I’m really proud of the girls.”
Final statistics were much like the final score. USC out-shot SDSU, 23-22, and had one more draw control, 13-12, and both teams were in a dead heat for ground balls, 11-all.
The Trojans got big performances from freshman attack Caroline Cordrey and freshman midfield Amanda Johansen. Each player tied for game-high honors with five points apiece. Both scored four goals and had an assist on the day. Johansen grabbed two draw controls and picked up four ground balls while Cordrey had two ground balls and three draw controls. The pair combined to help USC go three-for-three on free-positions shots. Cordrey had two and Johansen had the other.
“The reason I played well was because our team was hustling so hard all over the field,” said Cordrey. “Everybody was picking up. We were doing all the little things right. That translated to offense and me being able to get the goals. It was the ground ball on defense that somebody picked up, to the pass in the midfield, to the transition, to everybody playing selfless. I think we just played 100 percent like a team.”
USC’s other scorers were freshman midfield Haleigh Dalmass who had a pair of goals and freshman attack Caroline de Lyra who had two goals and an assist. Freshman defender Kelsey Dreyer was solid in the backfield with four draw controls, four caused turnovers, and three ground balls. In the cage, freshman goalie Liz Shaeffer picked up six saves for the Trojans.
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