No. 8 USC Women's Soccer Hosts Arizona, Arizona State
LOS ANGELES - Riding an eight-game unbeaten streak, the No. 8 USC women's soccer team hosts Arizona (Thursday) and Arizona State (Sunday) for a pair of matches this week. USC will honor its graduating seniors at Sunday's game against the Sun Devils.
HOW TO FOLLOW - Both games will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Network. Links for the broadcasts and live stats can be found on the women's soccer schedule page at USCTrojans.com. In-game updates will also be available on Twitter by following @USC_Wsoccer.
SOCIAL MEDIA - Keep up with everything USC women's soccer this year by following the Trojans on all of their social media platforms. You can follow @USCWsoccer on Instagram and @USC_Wsoccer on Twitter, and like USC Women's Soccer on Facebook.
SERIES VS ARIZONA - USC owns a 22-4-2 record in the all-time series with the Wildcats. The Trojans have won nine-straight in the series, including a 4-1 win in Tucson last season.
SERIES VS ARIZONA ST - USC owns an 18-8 record all time against the Sun Devils. The teams have split the last two meetings, with the Trojans winning 2-1 in Tempe last year and the Sun Devils winning 1-0 at home the season prior. Dating back to 2015, USC has won six of the last seven.
LAST WEEK - The Trojans went 2-0 in the state of Oregon last week, beating the Beavers and Ducks by a combined score of 9-1. USC opened the trip with a 5-1 victory at Oregon State and then took down Oregon 4-0.
BETHUNE PLAYER OF THE WEEK - After six of the Trojans' nine goals went directly through Croix Bethune, the senior midfielder was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. Bethune scored three goals and assisted three more on the Oregon trip, moving her to the top of the Pac-12 with seven assists on the season and 10th in the conference with five goals.
PAC-12 WEEKLY AWARDS -
9/12 - Simone Jackson (offensive)
9/26 - Nicole Payne (offensive)
10/3 - Croix Bethune (offensive)
CLIMBING THE RANKINGS - After starting the season at No. 15 in the rankings, the Trojans fell out following an opening-day loss at Purdue. Since then, USC is unbeaten in its last eight games and two weeks ago, jumped back into the ranking at No. 20. This week, following their dominant trip to Oregon, USC jumped 12 spots to No. 8 in the most recent coaches poll.
BALANCED ATTACK - USC has had eight different goal scorers so far this season, with six different players posting multiple goals through nine games. 12 different USC players have recorded at least a point this season and 10 Trojans have posted at least one assist.
STREAKING - As mentioned, USC comes in riding an eight-game unbeaten streak since their season-opening loss to Purdue. Since that game at Purdue (in which four USC players who had been at the U-20 World Cup were absent) the Trojans have seven wins and one draw, posting four shutouts and outscoring opponents 19-5. Over that stretch the Trojans have two wins over ranked opponents, beating No. 6 TCU, 3-0, and No. 19 Stanford, 2-1.
STAT RANKINGS -
Assists - Bethune (7) - 1st Pac-12/8th NCAA
Assists/G - Bethune (0.88) - 1st Pac-12/3rd NCAA
Goals - Bethune (5) - 10th Pac-12
Goals/G - Bethune (0.62) - 7th P12
Goals/G - Jackson (0.57) - 9th P12
Points - Bethune (17) - 6th Pac-12
Points/G - Bethune (2.12) - 2nd Pac-12/8th NCAA
Points/G - Jackson (1.43) - 9th P12
Save% - Smith (0.818) - 2nd Pac-12