Box Score PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State soccer team dropped just its second contest of the season, Thursday, falling to USC, 1-0, in the Cougars' Pac-12 home opener at Lower Soccer Field. A goal by the Trojans (7-3-1, 2-0-0) in the 78th minute proved to be the game winner, as the No. 20 Cougars (8-2-0, 1-1-0) lost their first conference match of the season.
“First, credit to USC. They're a great team,” WSU Head Coach Todd Shulenberger said. “The unfortunate part is, we had a great game plan going in to tonight and we held our own. We had some chances to tie it up or even get the first goal, but that's the way the game goes sometimes. I'm happy with our group. We'll bounce back and be ready to go on Sunday.”
USC's Morgan Andrews scored the lone goal of the match with 12 minutes remaining on the scoreboard. WSU's redshirt-freshman goalkeeper, Ella Dederick, looked to grab a cross played in by the Trojans, but was unable to control the ball, which fell to the feet of Andrews. Andrews poked the ball in to the bottom left corner from three yards out to give USC the win. Dederick made five saves in the match, including four in the second half.
The Cougars had several opportunities to lead and later tie the match, including a chance five minutes in to the game when redshirt-junior Susie White played a ball over the top to Kourtney Guetlein. The senior ran down the ball and put a cross in to the box. Redshirt-senior Beau Bremer was nearly on the receiving end with just the keeper to beat, but the ball fell just behind her and was cleared by the Trojans.
Late in the match, WSU looked to equalize as Guetlein pounced on a ball that was misplaced by USC's keeper and smashed it from outside the box. The ball floated up near the crossbar, but was collected by the Trojans' Sammy Jo Prudhomme to prevent the tie.
The Trojans outshot the Cougars 20-7 in the match, while WSU put four of its looks on frame to USC's six. The match marked the fifth time this season an opponent has outshot WSU, but just the first time the Cougars have concede a win when being outshot.
The Cougars look to rebound, Sunday, Oct. 4, in an 11 a.m. matchup with UCLA at Lower Soccer Field. The match will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks with Troy Clardy and Aly Wagner on the call.
COUGAR NOTES
The crowd of 1,015 was the eighth-largest crowd in WSU history…the Cougars are 5-2-2 in program history with an attendance above 1,000…WSU debuted a new anthracite alternate kit for the first time this season…WSU fell to 99-88-22 all-time in the month of October.