USD athletics kick off fall sports

A recap of teams’ early season performances

TJ JOSEPH / ASST. SPORTS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

Football

The University of San Diego football team started their season with a bang in their season opener versus LaVerne. The Toreros won with a score of 58-0, the largest winning margin in almost a decade. 

In his debut as a Torero, running back Chris Childers had a successful game. He recorded 112 rushed yards with 17 carries and two completed passes, which resulted in Childers scoring two touchdowns. 

Sophomore wide receiver Vance Jefferson also put on a performance, having four receptions for 107 yards and two touchdowns. 

USD dominated this game from front to back with the Toreros racking up 492 total yards compared to LaVerne’s 108. LaVerne only recorded 14 rushed yards. San Diego also forced 11 punts, emphasizing the defensive pressure the Toreros implemented against the Leopards. 

The USD football team is now 1-0 and will travel to Davis, California, for a Saturday night game against University of California, Davis. 

Volleyball

The USD Volleyball team, ranked No. 15,  started the year off strong with an impressive record of 4-1 in tournament play. 

The team recently won against the No. 8 ranked team, Ohio State. Both USD and Ohio State started off the first set  by going back and forth, but the Toreros slowly pulled away, resulting in a 1-0 start to the match. 

The second set followed suit, going down to the wire with a close Torero win of 26-24, giving the Toreros a strong 2-0 set lead over the Buckeyes. 

In the final set, the game was yet another back-and-forth battle, drawing the game to a neck-and-neck close. 

With the Buckeyes being up 24-22 and on the verge of winning their first set, the Toreros continued fighting to eventually pull out their last set win 28-26, resulting in a 3-0 sweep over Ohio State. 

Grace Frohling and Breana Edwards both had 13 kills each, leading the way for this back- and-forth match against the Buckeyes. This is their second win against a top ten school this season after defeating No. 6 Pittsburgh on Aug. 26. 

The Toreros have a busy schedule ahead of them, with two tournaments in the next month.  

On Sept. 16 and 17, they will host San Diego State University and Pepperdine in the Jenny Craig Pavilion for a match up outside of conference play, against Southern California rivals. Their first West Coast Conference game will take place on Sept. 22 at home against Pepperdine. 

Cross Country

The San Diego men and women cross country teams both had their season openers at the Mark Covert Invite, hosted by Cal State Fullerton. The men’s team placed fifth within the 15 team field, while the women placed fourth. On the men’s team, graduate student Ethan Steiner had a strong season debut, with a 10th place finish and a time of 25:37.9. Other notable performances came from sophomore Jake Coleman with a time of 26:15.6 and graduate student Ian Converse with a time of 26:17.3. Both also finished in the top twenty five. 

On the women’s team, sophomore, Madeline Heller finished in 13th place with an impressive time of 19:12.3. Daniella Hubble finished close behind Heller in 20th with a time of 19:25.3. 

The Toreros will travel to the University of California Riverside Invite on Saturday, Sept. 17 in lieu of the USD Invite that was canceled. 

Men’s Soccer

The men’s soccer team has been off to a slow start, having gone 0-3-1 in their first season games. Their most recent game was against Cal Baptist on Monday, Sept. 5 where the Toreros lost 2-0. Both teams did not score any goals in the first half, but Cal Baptist pulled away when the Lancers scored once in the 50th minute of the game and once again 10 minutes later. 

San Diego hopes to bounce back when they face their local opponents, the University of California San Diego in an away game on Thursday, Sept. 15 at 7:00 p.m. 

Women’s Soccer

The women’s soccer team had a decent start to their season and are looking to even out their win-to-loss record. The team started the year off 1-3-2. 

In their most recent game against Long Beach, they ended the game with a tie. At the 25 minute mark, Long Beach scored their first goal, leaving San Diego down 1-0. 

The Toreros continued to battle,   evening up the score to 1-1 when Eden Quiroz scored at the 54 minute mark. San Diego took the lead with the help of Josefine Schlichting in the 68th minute of the game. Long Beach tied up the game again at the 88th minute. 

Their next game will take place at Stanford on Thursday, Sept. 15. They will return home to play against Northern Arizona on Sept. 25 at 1:00 p.m.