USC women’s soccer is about to find out plenty about itself, and the calendar isn’t wasting any time.
The Trojans open Big Ten play this week at Rawlinson Stadium, starting with a Thursday matchup against No. 5 Michigan State before hosting Purdue on Sunday at 1 p.m. It’s a sharp jump into conference action, and USC is doing it against a Spartans team that reached the conference tournament final.
The Michigan State game will air live on the Big Ten Network, while Sunday’s match will stream on B1G+. Broadcast links and live stats are available on the women’s soccer schedule page at USCTrojans.com, and the program will also post in-game updates on X by following @USC_Wsoccer.
USC has already shown it can hang with elite opposition. The Trojans battled No.
1 Stanford to a 2-2 draw and snapped Stanford’s 20-game home winning streak in the process. Jaiden Rodriguez delivered the first-half equalizer, and it was the midfielder’s first collegiate goal.
Peyton Nakagawara added her first collegiate goal in the 54th minute, pushing Stanford to the brink of its first home loss in nearly two years. Josie Biehl was busy all night and finished with a career-high seven saves.
The Trojans also had a frustrating result earlier in the month, falling 1-0 at home to St. Mary’s on Aug.
- USC generated plenty of chances, outshooting the Gaels 19 to 5, but a late second-half goal in the 75th minute made the difference.
There’s also history attached to both Big Ten opponents. USC is 0-1 all-time against Michigan State, with the lone meeting coming last season in East Lansing, where the Spartans won 4-0.
Against Purdue, the Trojans have the better of it at 4-1 all-time. The teams last met in 2024, when USC earned a 1-0 win, and the Trojans beat Purdue 4-0 at home in 2023.
Rawlinson Stadium continues to be the Trojans’ home base as USC heads into its second season there in 2026. The venue opened just before the 2025 campaign after a $38 million project that was announced in 2023, broke ground on April 9, 2024, and finished last summer. Built on the former McAlister Field site, the stadium holds up to 2,500 fans, and USC held a ribbon-cutting ceremony before its season opener against CBU on August 17, 2025.
The schedule around it remains as demanding as ever. USC is set to face 12 opponents that reached the NCAA Tournament last season, including Stanford and Duke, both College Cup teams.
The list also includes Pepperdine, BYU, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Washington, Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa and UCLA. Those 12 teams combined for 22 NCAA Tournament wins, and Stanford finished as the national runner-up.
USC was picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten preseason coaches poll, and Annabel Austen, Mary Cochran and Alyssa Parsons were named preseason players to watch.
Jane Alukonis enters her fifth season leading the Trojans in 2026 with a career record of 49-19-14. She was named the 2024 Big Ten Coach of the Year after guiding USC to a conference championship.
In four seasons as a collegiate head coach, she has helped USC win four NCAA Tournament games and reach the quarterfinals in 2024. The Trojans also earned the program’s first No. 1 seed under her leadership and brought in the No. 1-ranked recruiting class this offseason.
A number of USC players have already made their mark early this season. Eleanor Morrissey scored her first collegiate goal against Duke and now has four points, while Savannah Leifried made an immediate impact in her first college game with an assist and later added another against Pepperdine. Rodriguez’s goal against Stanford was her first at the college level, and Lily Biddulph leads the team with three goals and six points after notching her first career goal against Pepperdine and then a first-career multi-goal game against New Mexico St.
Biehl has handled the early workload in goal, collecting 20 saves since her debut against No. 3 Duke and setting her career high with seven against Stanford.
Jordan Hill scored her first career goal in her first collegiate game against New Mexico State and also assisted another goal in USC’s 4-0 win. Lauder Headrick found the net against New Mexico State after entering in the 83rd minute, and Sophia Cavaliere returned from injury with two assists in that same match after coming off the bench for the final 13 minutes.
Rhea Moore has been a steady attacking presence through her first four collegiate games and finally registered an assist in the 4-0 win over New Mexico State. She has played 207 minutes and ranks second on the team with nine shots.
Rhiannon Mahon has appeared in all five games as a freshman and picked up her first assist in that New Mexico State win. Hadley Snyder, a graduate transfer from Louisville, has started all five games and leads USC field players with 380 minutes played.
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