Sun Devils look to ditch road woes at USC to start Pac-12 play

(Photo via Xavier Litman/WCSN)

Arizona State Women’s Lacrosse (1-4) travels to Los Angeles after going winless on its four-game East Coast road trip to take on the No. 18 USC Trojans (5-2) in its first Pac-12 Conference game of the season on Friday.

Despite the recent losses, ASU had some silver linings, as it only allowed No. 25 Penn State to eight goals while going to overtime against No. 24 Jacksonville. Conversely, the road trip was also filled with low points, like when the Sun Devils were outscored 8-1 by the Towson Tigers in the third quarter, proving costly in a 17-10 loss.

ASU faced three ranked teams during the trip, including the last game against No. 7 Florida on March 5 – where ASU head coach Taryn VanThof spent the last six years as an assistant coach – in which graduate midfielder Kaylon Buckner and junior attacker Mina Scott both scored four goals in a losing effort.

Buckner and Scott were not the only bright spots on the road trip. Freshman attacker Teagan Ng followed up her hat trick in the season opener by scoring in three of the four games on the trip while having multiple goals in two of those games. Ng has had an impressive start to her college career and now sits at second on the team in goals and points so far this season.

While ASU has leaned on the freshman, USC has relied on veteran experience. The Trojans do not have any freshmen with multiple goals this season, but instead have four returning attackers scoring double figures in goals.

Junior attacker Maggie Brown leads the Trojans thus far with 14 goals. Brown got off to a slow start with only one goal in her first two games, but has scored multiple goals in every game since. This hot streak includes the junior scoring 13 points in her last three games, featuring four points against No. 16 Princeton on March 10.

The Trojans lost that game against the Tigers, giving them an 0-2 record against ranked opponents this season. ASU is also winless against ranked opponents, so a win against USC could give the Sun Devils some serious momentum before coming back home.

Yet, junior goalkeeper Kait Devir will make scoring difficult against the Trojans, as she has only allowed more than six goals in a game twice this season. While ASU will face a great goalkeeper, it also has one of its own in sophomore Katie Vahle. The netminder averages 11.75 saves per game – which is sixth in the country – despite missing the season opener even though Vahle was the expected starter coming into the season.

Friday afternoon will perhaps be a revenge game for the Women of Troy, as the Sun Devils knocked out USC in last season’s Pac-12 Lacrosse Tournament semifinals. The Trojans also have a firm grip of the matchup with an undefeated home record this season, while ASU will try to break out of its winless road funk.