{"id":110220,"date":"2025-08-31T18:24:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/110220\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:24:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:24:06","slug":"scorching-hot-usc-womens-soccer-stifled-by-portland-in-0-0-draw-annenberg-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/110220\/","title":{"rendered":"Scorching hot USC women\u2019s soccer stifled by Portland in 0-0 draw \u2013 Annenberg Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

After winning its first three games and scoring 11 goals, No. 4 USC women\u2019s soccer had its offensive fire extinguished by the Portland Pilots in a 0-0 draw on Thursday. It\u2019s the first time this season that USC hasn\u2019t won a game, moving their record to 3-0-1.<\/p>\n

Even though USC had the lion\u2019s share of possession for most of the match and outshot Portland 18-7, the Pilots stuck to their defensive-minded gameplan of dropping back deep in order to disrupt USC\u2019s quick, attacking style of play.<\/p>\n

\u201cStatistics wise, the more people in line to goal the harder it\u2019s going to be to score,\u201d Trojan head coach Jane Alukonis said. \u201cThey stuck to the game plan from the first minute of the game and held a lot of numbers behind the ball. We just spoke about [it] as a team that it wasn\u2019t our best performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portland\u2019s defense held USC\u2019s offense in check by shutting down the middle of the pitch for a majority of the game. USC tried quick give-and-go passes on the wings to break through Portland\u2019s defense, but the Pilots never allowed the Trojans to cut back inside to create opportunities.<\/p>\n

USC had a couple looks from inside Portland\u2019s 18-yard box, with sophomore midfielder Eleanor Morrissey hitting one off the right post and out of play later in the first half. <\/p>\n

However, it was Portland who had the two best attacking chances of the night on nearly identical plays in the second half<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In the 67th minute, the Pilots\u2019 redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Sophia Hills sent a drop kick deep that bounced past USC\u2019s backline to the Trojans\u2019 18-yard box where redshirt senior forward Hailey Still only had USC graduate goalkeeper Bella Grust to beat.<\/p>\n

Since the play evolved so quickly, Grust wasn\u2019t able to come out as far as she would\u2019ve liked, but that allowed her to stand her ground a few yards from goal and focus on Still\u2019s impending shot.<\/p>\n

Still waited for the ball to settle after a couple bounces before striking with her right foot to the opposite bottom corner. Grust was ready for it, making a kick save with her right foot to keep the game level.<\/p>\n

Portland\u2019s second opportunity came 15 minutes later on a kick by Hills yet again. This time a goal kick, Hills sent one through the USC defense, where sophomore midfielder Nevaeh Peregrina sprinted in behind to take a shot. <\/p>\n

Grust came out to close down Peregrina\u2019s first time shot, making a slide-tackle-esque save at the top of the box to complete the shut out on Portland.<\/p>\n

The clean sheet was Grust\u2019s third of the season in four games. After Grust\u2019s two penalty saves against Pepperdine last Thursday\u2014with the latter ultimately winning the game for USC\u2014 she has settled in and thrived after making three appearances the last two seasons for the Trojans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve told myself since I\u2019ve been here and in preseason that this is the moment to be the goalie. I know I am and I think it\u2019s shown,\u201d Grust said after the game. \u201cBeing a goalkeeper, you need those big moments to get you through the season, to give you the confidence you need to lead the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

USC will look to build off Grust\u2019s string of incredible performances to begin the year, as next week\u2019s game might be the toughest of the season for the Trojans. Former Pac-12 foe No. 1 Stanford will travel to Rawlinson Stadium to take on USC at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Alukonis will have a full week to regroup, prepare and improve her team for the nationally televised matchup on Big Ten Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After winning its first three games and scoring 11 goals, No. 4 USC women\u2019s soccer had its offensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[62373,49,48,62370,62372,62369,62374,62368,62367,62375,561,62371,82,62366,6446],"class_list":{"0":"post-110220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-bella-grust","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-eleanor-morrissey","12":"tag-hailey-still","13":"tag-jane-alukonis","14":"tag-nevaeh-peregrina","15":"tag-portland-pilots","16":"tag-portland-soccer","17":"tag-rawlinson-stadium","18":"tag-soccer","19":"tag-sophia-hills","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-usc-soccer","22":"tag-usc-trojans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}