The Aggies continue to search for their first win of the season
By THEO KAYSER — sports@theaggie.org
The UC Davis women’s lacrosse team traveled to Los Angeles on Feb. 21 to face off against the University of Southern California (USC) for their third game of the season.
The Aggies put up a good fight against an intimidating opponent — USC entered the game coming off of a win against No. 21-ranked University of Colorado — but nonetheless left with a 7-12 loss.
The game began with a quick goal for USC, allowing them to take a 1-0 lead just over two minutes into the first period. UC Davis promptly responded with a goal of their own, as Ella Brislin, a fourth-year political science and history double major, scored her first goal of the game.
Just a few minutes later, Alex Agnew, a cognitive science graduate student, gave the Aggies their first lead of the game with a goal of her own as just under nine minutes were remaining in the first period.
The following eight minutes had both teams go scoreless before USC tied the match at 2-2 as the period was winding to a close.
Next, UC Davis retook the lead for the final time in the game after Jane Fox, a first-year undeclared major, scored an unassisted goal to make the score 3-2.
The momentum of the game then very abruptly changed hands, as USC went on to score three consecutive goals within a 90-second window, leaving them with a 5-3 lead with seven minutes remaining in the first half.
To bring the first half of the game to a close, Brislin scored her second goal, drawing the score within one for UC Davis.
After the back-and-forth during the first two periods, the game started to ramp up for the Aggies. After entering the third period ahead by a score of 5-4, USC extended that lead in the opening minutes of the half all the way to 10-4, scoring five unanswered goals across a 10-minute stretch. For the Trojans, this was largely due to teammates Reese Robinson and Maddie Dora who scored two goals each.
With 30 seconds remaining in the period, UC Davis finally re-entered the scoring column after Grace Gebhardt, a fourth-year design major, scored a goal, making the score 10-5. USC kept their foot on the gas, though, and scored another goal with just two seconds remaining in the period. In totality, the third period saw USC score six goals compared to just one by the Aggies, ending with the score sitting at 11-5 in favor of USC.
The Aggies entered the final period of the game in search of a miraculous comeback. Although the closing 15 minutes did see the Aggies outscore their opponent 2-1, it was not enough as USC left with the victory. Both goals in the period were scored by Gebhardt, adding to an impressive half, which saw her score all three goals for the team.
UC Davis’ offensive output was well distributed throughout the game, as four players contributed to the team’s seven goals. On the USC side, the show was undoubtedly stolen by Dora, who led the team with six goals.
In the first, second and fourth periods combined, UC Davis and USC tied with six goals each. In the end, the deciding factor was the dominant third period by USC.
With the loss, UC Davis dropped to a 0-3 record on the season. After searching for their first win of the New Year, hosting the University of Oregon on March 1, the UC Davis Aggies earned their first win with a final score of 20-15.
Written by: Theo Kayser — sports@theaggie.org
