Women’s soccer upsets top 20 teams

Toreros defeat Michigan, Oklahoma and SDSU

CLAUDIA CLOSE
CONTRIBUTOR

The University of San Diego’s women’s soccer team has had a lot of success, shutting out three Top 20 teams in the past three weeks.

For the first time in the program’s history, the Toreros have shut out No. 10 University of Michigan 5-0, No. 19 University of Oklahoma 2-0 and No. 20 San Diego State University 2-0 within one season.

Coach Hadrian Greenwood says that while he’s very happy the team can perform at that level, playing ranked teams is not new for the Toreros, nor is having such a competitive schedule.

“We have a very competitive schedule, we have underachieved in some games and we have also had a few injuries which has made it tough to have a consistent lineup,” Greenwood said. “It has taken us a little bit of time to find our identity as a team and we have just started to do that.”

Greenwood believes that the team did not get lucky but that they had the right focus collectively as a team to pull off the wins. When they have the urgency to play every play as the most important play, he knows that he has a good team.
“Everyone has been pulling the ropes together, working hard, acknowledging each other on the field and getting everything out of each situation,” Greenwood said.

Another exciting moment for the Toreros came when senior defender Megan O’Rourke was named West Coast Conference Player of the Week. While the accolade came as quite the surprise, O’Rourke says that it’s nice to be acknowledged.

“People who just watch games always look to see who scores or who assists, so being named Player of the Week as a defender is really exciting and it’s great to see that my hard work is not going unnoticed,” O’Rourke said.
Her coach has nothing but high praise.

“Megan has a standard for herself and she is starting to find that high level standard at the right time,” Greenwood said.

As for the upsets, O’Rourke feels that they are important to the team because she can feel the improvement. As a defender, she says that since she doesn’t score, one of her main goals is to stop the other team. If she succeeds, then she knows she’s done her job.

While Greenwood says the main goal is to keep improving as a collective unit everyday and keep challenging the team each day to see where they can keep growing, O’Rourke says they cannot lose another game.

“If we play like we did the past two weekends, I think we could win every other game,” Greenwood said. “We have the skill, it’s the intensity and the fight you have to bring that sets us over the edge against our competitors.”
If they do that, Greenwood sees the team having the chance to win their conference and the chance to be in the NCAA tournament.