09-08-2025, 04:55 PM
(09-08-2025, 08:50 AM)OCcardinal Wrote: Just like 2019. Scored 25+ goals in the first 5 games then shut out in a loss in game 6 despite dramatically outshooting our opponent. That ended up being our only blemish on the 2019 season. Hopefully it will be the same case this season. That second goal did show our weakness in outside back though. I'd feel a lot better about our championship chances if we have both Emri and Bhuta back by NCAAs.
Before the season started, women's soccer analyst Chris Henderson had the UCLA game as the second-most difficult game on our schedule (Florida State being the hardest). Before the weekend I was hoping for at least a split in LA, so I'm not super disappointed. We had the opportunities, the ball just didn't go into the goal. Hopefully we learn from it so this isn't repeated in NCAAs.
Stanford may very well drop from #1, but not likely very far. Crushing #6 USC will offset the UCLA loss. Massey has Stanford #2 (behind Duke). And most of the teams immediately behind Stanford all had blemishes this week too:
#2 Tennessee - tied #14 Memphis, barely eked out a 1-0 win over #181 Massey GA Southern
#3 Duke - tied unranked Alabama at home
#4 TCU - lost to unranked Northwestern
#5 Notre Dame - only team in the top 6 without a tie or loss this weekend (could get some #1 votes)
#6 USC - crushed by Stanford 1-5
P.S. Our fourth-most difficult game of the season, per Chris Henderson, is Thursday's game vs Clemson. Although Clemson has 3 ties and a loss, all of those blemishes were against good teams. Fingers crossed.
EDIT: I was wrong, at least as TDS goes. Notre Dame is number 1, but Florida state is #2, followed by Tennessee, Duke, UCLA and then Stanford. USC is completely unranked.
Emri is out for the season