The final buzzer sounded on the Trojan's basketball game against UC Riverside Saturday night and it was over -- not just the game, but just the entire Fall sports schedule.
Spring will start quickly (using the new year as a line in the sand) with the Rose Bowl and some hoops games, so this is a logical time for top ten lists. While considering the top ten USC sports stories of Fall 2007, it was obvious that certain words kept coming up.
To give things a new twist, here are the top ten words of the Fall. These aren't here because they are the "best," but they are the most significant, dominating both headlines and public discourse.
- Injury. They happen all the time in sports and nobody is immune, but this semester had an inordinate number of setbacks for Trojan athletes. Men's basketball got thumped by Mercer without Davon Jefferson (knee) and Daniel Hackett (jaw), and still hadn't completely gelled by the time the faced their first real challenges. Women's hoops lost two of their top players before the season even began. The soccer team's defense was thinned out. Cross country couldn't field their lone NCAA championship competitor due to illness. Volleyball learned to adjust for awhile without Diana Copenhagen. What's missing? Oh yeah -- football. Early in the season, somebody inside Heritage Hall said the mounting injuries weren't unusual. A couple weeks later, newspapers were dedicating a mind-numbing number of column inches to injury reports. A healthy John David Booty or fewer chinks in the offensive line, and the Trojans might only be practicing on New Years Day.
- Streak. While a couple big ones ended (top-10 rankings and home victories), the football program maintained their most sacred one: Pac-10 crowns. As Pete Carroll's pre-season goal, winning the league (or a share of it) for six straight years has also resulted in six straight BCS appearances.
Read on »
Men's Basketball - Taking on Cal Poly before a light crowd of 5,321 on Saturday, it seemed like USC could have sleep-walked through the game. It wouldn't have felt out of place if the Trojan Marching Band took a page from a Warner Brother's cartoon and played Edvard Grieg's Morning Mood. With some typically solid D and an offense showing signs of improvement, USC waltzed away with a 78-55 victory. There's one more game USC can't look past (UC Riverside) before the start of Pac-10 play ... O.J. Mayo spent Christmas in LA instead of going home, presumably working maniacally on his jump shot. That's some serious work ethic.
Women's Basketball - USC won their own 4-team Women of Troy Basketball Classic last week. They downed Grambling State 78-45, then won the championship 75-68 over Portland State. The Trojans are undefeated at home this year. Heather Oliver was named MVP of the tournament with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists.
Women's Volleyball - After making it the the NCAA Final Four, the Women of Troy finished the season ranked #3 by the AVCA with a 29-5 record. It was the fourth time the Trojans made the semifinals in the past six years. Asia Kaczor (first team) and Taylor Carico (second team) were named All-Americans.
Men's Water Polo - After finishing as NCAA runner-up for the second year in a row, USC had six players honored by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches. Senior Tommy Corcoran made the All-American first-team for the first time, and has been recognized on some level for the past three years. Senior Adam Shilling has also been honored for three years, making the second-team in 2007 along with sophomore Matt Sagehorn. Sophomores J.W. Krumpholz and Shea Buckner and senior Gabor Sarusi earned honorable mentions.
Men's Tennis - Trojan alumnus Stan Smith, an NCAA and Wimbledon champ, was honored earlier this month with the Davis Cup Award of Excellence.
Men's Basketball - #25 USC stomped Delaware 83-54 on Monday night thanks to 68% shooting. With the margin reaching as many as 36, it was never really in question ... O.J. Mayo became the first Trojan to score in double digits in his first 10 career games ... Around halftime, Jonathan Kay of Rivals pondered whether the Trojans would call a single timeout in the game. They didn't. As the assembled press corp scratched their heads over what else was worth writing about, the band kept counting down the game clock for Delaware -- several seconds early.
Women's Volleyball - After an upset sent the Trojans to the NCAA Final Four in Sacramento, the Women of Troy fell to Stanford in the semis ... All-American Asia Kaczor was named one of four finalists for the Honda Award, presented to the nation's top player in every sport.
Women's Basketball - Following a difficult midwest trip, USC got back on track with a 55-52 victory over Pepperdine last week. Nadia Parker had 17, all in the second half ... This weekend they'll host the Women of Troy Basketball Classic, including Portland, Hawaii, and Grambling.
Women's Soccer - Rankings and awards are inconsistent in college soccer. USC ended the season without a first team All-American.
Ask anybody, and they're probably satisfied with the national
championship instead. The fact that they did it as a unit without individual standouts says
a lot about this group -- and their coach ... It would be unfair to say nobody is getting recognition. Goalkeeper Kristin Olsen, who only made the Pac-10's second team despite dominating almost every statistical category, is a finalist for her sport's Honda Award. The sophomore was already named top defensive player in the NCAA Tournament ... Ashley Nick and Kristin Olsen were named to the NSCAA All-America Second
Team.
Quarterback Debate - In order to address a previous football question on this blog, I arbitrarily asked students at the basketball game if they preferred Mark Sanchez or Mitch Mustain. Sanchez won in a bigger blowout than the one on the court that evening. I'll be the first to say that this doesn't really prove anything, other than Mustain's low-profile on campus. That will change come Spring camp. I doubt there'll be much more to add until then.
Women's Volleyball - It took an upset over the Longhorns to pave the way to Cow Town. The 5th- seeded Trojans knocked off 4th-seeded Texas in a three-game sweep to advance to the NCAA final four in Sacramento. USC was led by senior star Asia Kaczor with 17 kills. Kaczor was named MVP of the regional tournament. Dianne Copenhagen (13 kills against Texas) and Jessica Gysin joined Kaczor on the All-Regional team ... This marks the fourth time in six years that the Trojans have advanced to the semifinals, where they will face Stanford on Thursday. The other semifinal will pit Penn State against Cal, who shocked top-ranked Nebraska in the last round. The two winners will play for the national title on Saturday.
Men's Basketball - USC's 65-44 loss to Fresno Pacific gets relegated to the roundup, not because it was an ugly loss to a poorly regarded opponent, but because it was an exhibition. In fact, Coach TIm Floyd kept his top five scorers on the bench for the entire game knowing the result wouldn't count toward anything. It was a great opportunity to test out some backups and show them how much they needed to improve. It was not, as Conquest Chronicles points out, a reason for USC fans to boo. Tsk, tsk.
Women's Basketball - A Midwest swing was more of a miss for the Women of Troy, who fell to Nebraska, 87-69, and Michigan, 82-61. USC dropped to 4-4 on the season. It will take on Pepperdine at home at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Women's Soccer - Maybe you missed it, but the USC women's soccer team is the greatest college team in the nation. We're pretty sure nobody saw that coming a couple of months ago.
 Women's Soccer - The soccer team is the big news on campus (even Pete Carroll was raving about it in his weekly press conference). The Women of Troy made it to the third round of the NCAA tournament for this first time in the program's history, and will host Florida at the Coliseum at 7 p.m. Saturday.
USC played its first two rounds at Missouri, smoking Creighton, 3-0, before edging Mizzou, 1-0. Ashley Nick had a huge week, scoring the winning header against Missouri in double overtime. She connected off of a flip throw-in by Megan Ohai (pictured left). We don't have video of the play, but this is what the rare move looks like.
Besides netting the first game-winner of her career, Nick was named to this year's All-Pac-10 first team. Amy Rodriguez (M/F) and Kristin Olsen (GK) earned second team honors, while freshmen Kasey Johnson (D) and Megan Ohai (M) each garnered an honorable mention. Ashli Sandoval (M) joined Johnson and Ohai on the All-Freshman Team. Janessa Currier, who did not get any league awards, got national recognition with an honorable mention by Top Drawer Soccer.
Florida, who also went to double OT in its last game (actually beyond -- into a shoot-out), will be USC's first opponent in the Coliseum since 2001. It's the third time USC has hosted the tournament there, where they have a 26-5-3 record overall. USC normally plays on McAlister Field (which doesn't have lighting for night games). Tickets can be purchased on game day at Gate 4. It's $10 for adults and $5 for kids under 12.
Men's Water Polo - The Trojans sunk the UC Irvine Anteaters at home last weekend and finished the season with a perfect record at home. They haven't lost at McDonald Swim Stadium since 2004 ... USC will be a #2 seed in Berkeley this weekend for the MPSF league championships and will start off against #7 UCSB.
Women's Basketball - The Women of Troy got back on track last weekend with their first victory of the season. Brynn Cameron led the way with 16 points and Camille LeNoir returned from injury to score 9 in a 70-57 win over Colorado ... USC is currently heading to the Bahamas to play in the Junkanoo Jam. For more on Thanksgiving tournaments, check out this article by Lara Boyko (who regularly covers USC sports).
Women's Volleyball - After beating #5 Washington and unranked Washington State, the Trojans took over the Huskies' ranking in the polls. They'll head to the desert this weekend to finish up the regular season against Arizona and Arizona State, then wait for NCAA Tournament brackets to be announced on Sunday ... Asia Kaczor was named Pac-10 Player of the Week. She set school and conference records with 44 kills and 100 attempts against Washington. This is the fifth time she's been given the honor.
Women's Swimming and Diving - USC beat Ohio State in a dual meet and multiple swimmers hit NCAA qualifying times.
Photo by Bill Barrett / courtesy USC
Men's Water Polo - Watching #2 USC fall to #1 Cal by a score of 10-9 was surreal. It
wasn't that it was raining in the pool (what difference did that make,
really?), but that Cal is always a wacky place to watch sports. The
"It's all your fault!" chants directed at USC goalie Adam Shilling were
very Berkeley. The post-game celebration of Euro pop/trance and Pabst
Blue Ribbon was downright bizarre. The USC fan wearing a hybrid Ugg
boot/Shetland sheepdog was also out of place. As for the important part, USC dropped their second straight after opening the year 13-0 ... The Trojans saved face by hammering Pacific 14-9 the following day ... Matt Sagehorn had five goals on the weekend.
Women's Volleyball - The Women of Troy lost to Oregon and beat Oregon State. Asia Kaczor tied a school record with 8 aces and also had 22 kills against the Beavers ... USC fell from 6th to 8th in the rankings. They finish their home schedule this weekend against the Washington schools ... NCAA tournament selection is less than two weeks away.
Women's Basketball - The Trojans didn't trail against UCSB for the entire game -- until overtime. They wound up losing 69-63. Brynn Cameron got back on track after missing last season. She led the way with 18 points. Morghan Medlock (17) and Aarika Hughes (11) both had career scoring highs ... Camille LeNoir is expected back against Colorado this weekend.
Women's Cross Country - Sarah Cocco placed 18th at NCAA regionals and became the first freshman from USC to reach the NCAA championship meet. She's one of only four freshmen runners to make it without being a member of a qualifying team. The squad was 16th at regionals and will not advance.
Men's Golf - The Trojans are done until February. Last week the team finished third at the CordeValle Colligiate. Sophomore Rory Hie and freshman Tim Sluiter tied for ninth. Jamie Lovemark struggled with strep throat.
Swimming and Diving - The men slipped by Arizona State in their dual meet 150-149. Richard Gosper's 50 freestyle qualified as an NCAA consideration time. The women fell to the Sun Devils. Whitney Henson had a season best in the 500yd freestyle.
Lexus Gauntlet - USC and UCLA haven't gone head-to-head since last week, so it's still tied up. Did anybody notice that ESPN gave some love to the volleyball rivalry?
Women's Volleyball - USC took down UCLA over the weekend to even the season series. The Women of Troy are still undefeated at home since the opening match loss last year and are 3rd in the Pac-10 and ranked 6th nationally ... The win was coach Mick Haley's 700th as a D-1 women's coach and 100th in the Pac-10 (all league wins have been at USC).
Men's Tennis - The team of Robert Farah and Kaes Van't Hof were runners up in ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Tennis Championships, losing to top seed Virginia in the finals. The loss ended an eight-game winning streak. The pair is 13-3 on the year.
Women's Soccer - The Trojans beat Arizona, 3-1, and Arizona State, 1-0, at home this weekend. They're #4 nationally and #2 in the Pac-10, finishing undefeated at home for first time since 1995.
Baseball - The Cardinal and Gold series was extended to three games last week. The squad is now off until February ... Eric Chavez of the A's won a Gold Glove. He was a USC commit several years ago, but turned pro at the 11th hour.
Men's Golf - After two days USC was tied for 2nd overall, 10 shots overall behind UCLA, at CordeValle. Rory Hie fell from 7th to 2nd. Play continues Wednesday ... Jamie Lovemark is struggling due to illness.
Swimming and Diving - USC hosted the Trojan Diving Invitational over the weekend. Four divers qualified for Zone Championships pre-qualifier for nationals.
Women's Tennis - Amanda Fink and Gabriela Niculescu made it to the consolation quarter finals of the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Tennis Championships. The team is done until January.
Lexus Gauntlet - The USC-UCLA rivalry series is tied, 12.5-12.5, thanks to the women's volleyball victory -- and despite a couple rough outings against the Bruins the weekend before by women's soccer and men's water polo.
 Three different sports are on a philanthropic roll this month ...
Women's soccer is making efforts to provided clean drinking water and save lives in Africa. Spearheaded by recent transfer Amy Massey, the program will collect water bottles and donate the proceeds from recycling to Water Wells for Africa. Bins are at all soccer home games and in the lobby of Heritage Hall. If you can support the effort in other ways (ex: large donations of recyclables), e-mail Massey at aemassey@usc.edu.
Women's volleyball is having a canned-food drive to support victims of the Southern California wildfires. This Friday when USC hosts UCLA at the Galen Center, each person who donates at least one can of food will receive $3 off of general admission. It should be a good crowd, as this is the first time USC has hosted the Bruins in the new facility, combined with homecoming weekend and Alumni Night.
Last Sunday, the men's basketball team held Dribble For The Cure. The event, involving basketball-related games and activities, awarded prizes to participants who raised the most money for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
It was a rough weekend in Troy, with a few bright spots sprinkled in ...
Women's Volleyball - The Women of Troy provided some of the best results for USC this weekend, taking down #9 Cal and #3 Stanford. USC surprised the Cardinal with a come-from-behind victory at the Galen Center ... Asia Kaczor was named the national player of the week, with a combined 52 kills and 30 digs against the NorCal schools. It's the first time a Trojan has earned the honor since November 2003, and 5th time in the program's history ... USC is riding a 20-match winning streak at home, and are undefeated in the Galen Center since dropping the first match played in the facility against Stanford ... Friday is alumni night, with about 25 former players scheduled to attend (including Leslie Nelson, flying all the way from Paris).
Men's Water Polo - UCLA's Chay Lapin would fail an underwater fire-prevention class. The Bruins' goalie was on fire in the pool on Sunday, stopping 15 shots (including two penalties) to break the Trojans' 13-game winning streak. The 9-5 loss is USC's worst since falling to Stanford by the same score in 1997 ... There was something very idyllic about the game: palm trees, a pool, temps in the mid-80s, and a packed house working on their collective tan. Very SoCal.
Women's Soccer - USC lost, 2-0, on Friday to UCLA. Amy Rodriguez showed some of her international-level skills by trying to sell the ref on a penalty kick. After a hard tackle she remained face-down in the box for several seconds and tossed her arms in the air. She got the whistle, but the kick was placed just outside the 18. It was a good metaphor for the Trojans -- so close, yet so far. USC played tough, but UCLA put away two far-post goals in the second half. You can read more notes on the game in this post.
Women's Cross Country - The Women of Troy finished 8th in the Pac-10 championships -- a marked improvement from last year (10th) but still falling short of expectations for the promising young squad. Despite this weekend's result, USC will be sending six runners to NCAA regionals ... Sarah Cocco was the top finisher for USC and second among freshmen in the Pac-10.
Women's Swimming and Diving - In a meet where each team was restricted to 8 participants, USC came in fourth at the SMU Swimming and Diving Classic. Rebecca Soni was named Swimmer of the Meet, winning three individual events and one relay ... Both the men and women have the Trojan Invitational this weekend.
Women's Rowing - USC owned the water at the Head of the American Regatta in Sacramento, featuring mostly West Coast competition (including Cal and Stanford). The Trojans won every event, including 10 of the top 11 in pairs (Cal had a team in 8th).
Football Watch Lists - Several players were named to semifinalist lists for postseason honors ... Sedrick Ellis and Keith Rivers are among 17 players up for the Lott Trophy, awarded to the defensive player with the biggest impact on his team both on and off the field ... Rivers is also one of 10 semifinalists for the Butkus Award, given to the nation's premier linebacker ... Sam Baker is one of just four offensive players among the 12 Rotary Lombardi Award semifinalists, given to the top lineman in the nation.
Women's Soccer - Amy Rodriguez is tougher than you. After cracking her head into another player in a 3-0 win over Cal last week, a doctor stapled an inch-long gash back together so she could continue playing. Not stitched. Stapled. Two days later, she scored a header in the final minutes to tie top-ranked Stanford, 1-1, in Palo Alto ... The Trojans' big weekend earned them a #2 ranking in Soccer Buzz, and #5 in Soccer Times and Soccer America (which didn't even have USC ranked to start the season) ... Lauren Brown was named to the SoccerBuzz
Elite Team of the Week ... The Women of Troy invade Westwood on Friday to take on UCLA. The crosstown showdown could be one of the best games of the year. The Bruins are now ranked #1 in all four major polls, and the last three games betweens these teams went into overtime.
Women's Volleyball - USC earned a split on the road last week, beating Washington State, 3-1, but getting swept by Washington. At 17-3 (6-3 in conference), the Trojans are two games behind the Huskies and Stanford in the Pac-10. They fell from 4th to 6th in the national rankings (Washington was 5th) ... There are nine games left in the Pac-10 season. The next three will be at home.
Men's Water Polo - USC continued to roll, though allowed more scoring than usual. Last week they took down UC Santa Barbara by a score of 14-10, the first time the Trojans have allowed double digits since Oct. 7, 2006. The Trojans also continued to spread their own scoring around, with 10 different players hitting the back of the net ... The top-ranked and undefeated Trojans jump in the pool with UCLA on Sunday. USC has a four-game winning streak against their crosstown rival, each by a single goal.
Men's Golf - USC placed third in a field of 18 at the Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational in Florida, which wrapped on Tuesday. Sophomore Jamie Lovemark was second overall.
Women's Swimming and Diving - Football wasn't the only sport with a good weekend in South Bend. The #13 Women of Troy sunk #17 Notre Dame in the water. They were led by Golden Goggle nominee Rebecca Soni, who won three races and broke two pool records.
Men's Swimming and Diving - The 15th ranked men's team got in the pool for the first time this year and had no problem dispatching #22 Notre Dame. Vanni Mangoni won three events and the Trojans had multiple 1-2-3 finishes.
Women's Cross Country - Senior captain Laura Meyers was the fastest woman at the Titan Invitational in Fullerton, leading USC to a second place finish overall. It was the fourth consecutive first place by a Trojan ... Several of USC's top runners sat out in preparation for the Pac-10 Championships being held this weekend at Oregon State.
Women's Tennis - In a successful ITA West Regionals, USC's Amanda Fink and Gabriela Niculescu took home the doubles title, qualifying them for the national indoor championships in November. Fink also made the semifinals in individual play.
Men's Tennis - Call it a double-double. The men also took the ITA West Regional doubles title this weekend with the tandem of Robert Farah and Kae Van't Hof.
Baseball - This season's schedule is out. Two of the games are against Irvine. The Anteaters are coached by former Trojan skipper Mike Gillespie, who also happens to be the father-in-law of current USC coach Chad Kreuter. That's almost as awkward as the whole Brady Quinn's sister thing.
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