2022 USC Women's Soccer Schedule Announced
LOS ANGELES – The 2022 USC women's soccer schedule for this upcoming fall was released this week, with the Trojans opening the regular season on August 18 at Purdue.
The Trojans, who are entering their first season under newly hired head coach Jane Alukonis, will play a 17-game regular season slate, with one exhibition on August 11 at Pepperdine. USC will play eight games at home and nine on the road.
NON-CONFERENCE HOME GAMES
The Trojans host a pair of non-conference home games this season, with USC's home opener coming on Thursday, September 1 against TCU. Also coming to McAlister Field will be UC Irvine on September 15. Both opponents made the NCAA Tournament last season, with UC Irvine knocking off UCLA in the first round and TCU winning a pair of postseason games as a No. 4-seed.
NON-CONFERENCE ROAD GAMES
USC has four non-conference road games on the slate, with the Trojans opening the regular-season at Purdue (Aug. 18) and then returning to Southern California to face Long Beach State on August 21. The Trojans then head up the road to face CSUN on September 8 before hitting the road against Nebraska on September 11.
Purdue is another 2021 NCAA Tournament team on the Trojan schedule, with the Boilermakers coming off a 15-win season and one tournament victory. USC and Nebraska will be playing for the first time since 2019 and it will be the Trojans' first game in Lincoln since 1997. USC has not played CSUN since 2013 and will be facing Long Beach State for the first time since the team met in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament (a 6-0 victory for the Trojans).
PAC-12 HOME GAMES
Pac-12 play opens up at home for the Trojans on September 23, when USC hosts perennial powerhouse Stanford. The Arizona schools come to town the third week of conference play, with the Trojans hosting the Wildcats on October 6 and the Sun Devils on October 9. Washington comes to McAlister Field on October 27 and Washington State comes to town on October 30. USC closes the regular season with a home showdown against crosstown rivals UCLA on November 4. The location of the season-finale is still to be determined.
PAC-12 ROAD GAMES
The Trojans play five Pac-12 road games this season, hitting the road for Oregon first where they will take on the Beavers on September 29 and the Ducks on October 2. The Trojans take a trip up north to face Cal on October 14, and then hit the road for the mountain schools the following week, facing Utah on October 20 and Colorado on October 23.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
The Pac-12 Network will televise all of USC's conference games this season, both home and away. Streaming and broadcast information for the Trojans' non-conference games will be updated on the women's soccer schedule page as it becomes available.
PAC-12 GAUNTLET
The Pac-12 will again be one of the toughest roads to the postseason in the country this year, with four teams coming off postseason appearances. A Pac-12 team has won three of the last six NCAA national titles (including USC's 2016 championship), and five of the last 11. USC, UCLA, Stanford and Washington State all made the NCAA Tournament last season.
A NEW ERA
The Trojans entered a new era when Jane Alukonis was hired as the fifth head coach in program history on January 20 of this year. Joining Alukonis on staff has been Trojan great and former USWNT star, Amy Rodriguez, former Arizona State assistant coach, Shigeyoshi "Sugar" Shinohara, and another former USWNT standout, Saskia Webber (goalkeepers coach).
LAST SEASON
The Trojans are coming off of a 14-3-3 season in which they finished second in the Pac-12 standings and made their eight consecutive NCAA Tournament. USC won its opener against Grand Canyon, 6-0, before being bounced from the postseason in penalty kicks by Penn State.