Margueritte Aozasa was launched to the UCLA-USC rivalry lengthy earlier than she coached her first aggressive soccer sport for the Bruins.
“I acquired my first style of it final spring after we performed the Trojans in a spring scrimmage,” mentioned Aozasa, who had spent the earlier seven seasons as an assistant at Stanford. “I had by no means skilled one thing like that. The entire thing was electrical.”
Jane Alukonis was in entrance of the USC bench that day and for her the rivalry wasn’t new, however the viewpoint was. Alukonis was a UCLA assistant for 4 seasons earlier than changing into head coach at USC in January.
“It's bizarre and distinctive, realizing what it seems like being on the Bruins’ aspect of that, the place SC was not a staff you needed to face ever,” she mentioned.
Girls’s soccer got here to each campuses in 1993 however by no means earlier than have USC and sixth-ranked UCLA each welcomed new head coaches in the identical season, with Aozasa changing Amanda Cromwell in Westwood and Alukonis taking up for Keidane McAlpine at USC.
Each have large cleats to fill: Cromwell gained UCLA’s solely NCAA title in her first season, then made the semifinals two extra instances over the following 5 years whereas McAlpine gained a nationwide title in his third yr, a part of a streak throughout which the Trojans made eight consecutive event appearances.
“Can we proceed the success of USC and UCLA?” Aozasa requested. “The popularity of the colleges proper now's going to precede any popularity of myself and Jane. However I do really feel there’s an expectation on us to take care of that.”
They’re not the one coaches dealing with nice expectations. Tim Ward, whose 281 victories make him the second-winningest Division I coach in Southern California behind Cal Poly’s Alex Crozier, has led No. 14 Pepperdine to twenty successful seasons in 24 tries, taking the Waves to the ultimate 16 of the NCAA event for the fourth time final fall. And UC Irvine, the reigning Huge West champion, is trying to get again to the NCAA event after upsetting UCLA within the first spherical a yr in the past. The Anteaters opened with two preseason shutouts and two regular-season shutouts, together with a 1-0 win over Cal.
However the greatest applications are at UCLA and USC, whose groups have mixed for 3 nationwide titles, seven appearances within the championship sport and 45 journeys to the NCAA event in 25 years.
“Can we proceed the success of USC and UCLA? ... I do really feel there’s an expectation on us to take care of that.”
— UCLA girls’s soccer coach Margueritte Aozasa
“Each single day I come to work, day-after-day we're out on the sector, I've that obligation to verify I comply with in these footsteps,” mentioned Aozasa, whose Bruins, the two-time defending Pac-12 champions, opened with a preseason win over Fresno State, a regular-season win over Iowa and can host Cal State Northridge on Thursday. “So yeah, there’s somewhat stress. However it’s not one thing I didn’t assume.”
Aozasa, who grew up in Mountain View and performed at Santa Clara, was a high youth soccer coach for a decade and is aware of the California market effectively — an enormous motive why she excelled as a recruiter at Stanford, together with her ultimate class, the one she left behind, rating No. 2 within the nation.
That made the transfer to UCLA, a staff with 26 Californians on the roster, a bit simpler.
“Most of those gamers I've some historical past with,” she mentioned. “I feel the staff was receptive from Day 1. There’s been somewhat give and take by way of determining how we’re all going to work effectively collectively. However I feel the transition has been as easy as I might have requested for.”
That transition was arguably made simpler by the return of goalkeeper Lauren Brzykcy, who allowed simply 11 targets in 20 video games final season. She is one in all two Bruins, alongside sophomore defender Lilly Reale, named to the watch listing for the Hermann Trophy, soccer’s model of the Heisman. However maybe the best-known participant is junior ahead Reilyn Turner, who ranked second on the staff with 10 targets final season. In December, Turner grew to become the primary school athlete to signal an NIL contract with Nike.
Final December can be when Alukonis’ crosstown transfer from UCLA to USC went from unplanned to vital following Cromwell’s departure for the NWSL’s Orlando Satisfaction.
“I didn’t actually have a resume. I purchased a spot near UCLA pondering I used to be going to be there for one more 5 years no less than,” she mentioned. “However as soon as all that occurred, I began to go searching.”
She began with UCLA, however rapidly decided she wasn’t going to get the job there. So when McAlpine left USC the identical week, she utilized.
“The entire particular person comes first. There’s no option to construct the connection and get one of the best out of athletes in the event you solely view them as athletes.”
— USC girls’s soccer coach Jane Alukonis
“It form of felt like each colleges have been hitting the reset and [were] form of in the identical situations, the place you’re going to construct somewhat little bit of a brand new identification,” mentioned Alukonis who, like Aozasa, is a school head coach for the primary time.
That identification is taking longer to type at USC. After scoring 56 targets final season — 10 greater than every other Pac-12 staff — the No. 15 Trojans opened by failing to attain in a preseason highway loss at Pepperdine and regular-season loss to Purdue, falling out of the nationwide rankings. The Trojans (1-1) will play the primary residence match of the Alukonis period Sept. 1 in opposition to Texas Christian.
Midfielder Croix Bethune, named one of the best participant within the nation by Prime Drawer Soccer, scored a team-high 16 of these targets in 2021 and is the one USC participant on the Hermann watch listing. (Pepperdine’s Carlee Giammona, Tori Waldeck and Trinity Watson are additionally Hermann Trophy candidates.)
Succeeding McAlpine includes extra than simply making an attempt to match his document on the sector, nonetheless. The coach additionally guided the staff by way of a tumultuous interval that included the COVID-19 lockdowns and the emotion of the Black Lives Matter motion by main staff conferences that usually resulted in hugs and tears. Alukonis, who mentioned many of the personal conversations she has with gamers don't have anything to do with soccer, hopes to comply with that lead.
“The entire particular person comes first,” mentioned Alukonis, the primary girl to run the USC program since Karen Stanley in 1995. “There’s no option to construct the connection and get one of the best out of athletes in the event you solely view them as athletes.
“They’re student-athletes and have a great deal of accountability. To get to know them and perceive them as individuals is extraordinarily necessary.”
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