The sights and the sounds were majestic to behold.
The venue of choice was the grand Los Angeles Coliseum; its familiar football field was converted into a soccer pitch, yet the bright lights flooded down upon a green still marked off with 10-yard lines and a pair of endzones.
And with such a premium setting, an audience of 8,527 fans gathered at the stadium to witness the UCLA–USC rivalry at its finest, making for the largest crowd to attend a regular-season college women’s soccer game.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in front of a crowd that big before, and I loved it,” sophomore midfielder Chelsea Cline said. “I didn’t think it was intimidating. Being in front of a crowd that big ““ it was really exciting.”
But the festive and record-breaking scene was only half of the story.
What took place on the field was a dogged style of play that had both teams fired up.
Despite the 1-0 loss, it was an especially welcoming sight for the Bruins, considering coach Jillian Ellis has been imploring her team to embrace a “whatever-it-takes” mantra all season long.
“Being physical was mostly because it was ‘SC, but we really need to bring that mentality to all the games; it would really help our team right now,” senior defender Lauren Barnes said. “We showed we can do that, we just need to carry it on.”
Barnes and Cline in particular were in the thick of the contact-heavy second half.
Cline was whistled for a yellow card in the 67th minute for running into and knocking down Women of Troy freshman goalkeeper Shelby Church, leading to an exchange of words between sophomore midfielder Zakiya Bywaters and USC’s sophomore forward Samantha Johnson.
Seven minutes later, Barnes was penalized for running through redshirt junior midfielder Ashli Sandoval on her kick.
“With USC, it’s often personal,” Cline said. “Barnes really stepped up; she won probably every single ball that came her way, and she mixed it up with anybody who came near her, and I think that’s what we need.”
Yet even with the aggressive approach, the Bruins were unable to capitalize on their scoring chances.
A USC goal in the 86th minute was the lone score of the match, giving the Women of Troy their first win over the Bruins since 2007.
“We’ve got to do better at keeping the ball in the attacking half,” Ellis said. “I thought our defense played hard and tough, but across the field everywhere else, it seems like when we get fatigued, our execution is not what it needs to be.”
Given the way things unfolded on Friday, the rivalry won’t be simmering down anytime soon. For Cline, 90 minutes’ worth of intensity wasn’t quite quenching enough.
“I wish we had five more minutes of that game to play because it could have ended very differently,” she said. “We were on their heels and you could tell. The score was just a very frustrating overall result.”