Pairings were announced today for the NCAA Tournament of women’s soccer. USC’s first-round game is against San Diego, a team we tied 0-0 early in our 10-7-3 season. (San Diego’s record is 14-6.) The game is Friday at 6:00 PM on UCLA’s campus.

If the Women of Troy win, their second-round matchup could be against the hated Bruins, who beat us 2-0 earlier this year in a game that USC’s coach described as her team’s worst performance all year. Methinks the Women of Troy might be thirsty for a little revenge.

Hopefully, UCLA will beat Loyola Marymount on Friday and USC will kick some San Diego butt, setting up a classic Trojan-Bruin duel on Sunday at 1:00 PM for the right to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

Here’s a PDF file of the tournament bracket. (Note the first-round matchup between UConn and Central Connecticut State!)

Hmm… now remind me again, why would a Trojan voluntarily become a Husky? :)

USC 41, Washington 21. Dave’s old school vanquishes Dave’s new school, and in convincing fashion. ‘Nuff said.

Actually, there is one more thing I need to say…

NYAH, NYAH, NYAH-NYAH, NYAH! :)

(Dave, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, is David Kreutz, my freshman-year roommate, briefly a member of the Trojan Marching Band who then transferred to Washington and joined the Husky Band. He returned to L.A. this weekend for the first time since leaving USC in May 2000.)

In other news, USC’s undefeated, #1-ranked women’s volleyball team beat UCLA, our #5-ranked men’s water polo team beat Cal Baptist, and our #12-ranked women’s soccer team beat Arizona State.

Oh, and the World Series starts tonight. Go Angels! Go Rally Monkey!

The #1-ranked USC women’s volleyball team won its 14th and 15th games in a row this weekend, sweeping the Oregon schools with consecutive 3-0 wins. Becky and I attended the first of these two wins, against Oregon State on Friday, and the Women of Troy definitely kicked butt.

And, oh yeah, we have football a team? Well, they won too, rallying from an early 21-3 deficit to beat Cal, 30-28, and stay alive in the Rose Bowl race. To make the day even sweeter, UCLA lost.

Next week, the Trojans face a virtual “elimination game” against Washington, which, like USC, has one Pac-10 loss. (Having two losses makes it virtually impossible to win the conference.) The stakes in the Trojans-Huskies game are incredibly high, not only because of that Rose Bowl thing, but more importantly because my ex-roommate Dave is coming to town — as a member of the Husky Marching Band — for the first time since he transferred from USC to Washington at the end of our freshman year. (The Trojans and Huskies did not play in 2000, and the 2001 game was at Washington.) It’s a battle of “Fight On” vs. “Bow Down”… and I think we all know who’s gonna win. Fight on, ‘SC! Bow down to NO ONE! :)

Students, faculty and staff celebrate the unveiling of the Rainbow Floor mural on April 26. The Rainbow Floor — USC’s new special-interest housing floor for gay, lesbian, bisexual and trangendered students, and their straight allies — has been Becky’s home all year, and my unofficial home. I sleep here about 99 percent of the time. :)

Above, a protester outside the Bovard administration building screams anti-sweatshop slogans while onlookers watch. Below, one of the 11 students who “occupied” USC President Steven Sample’s office for more than six hours exults after emerging with a partial victory.

For two more pictures of the protest, click here and here. Still more photos coming soon!

It was a good weekend to be a Trojan. USC’s #18-ranked football team crushed #23 Oregon State, 22-0, in our Pac-10 conference opener. Let the race to the Rose Bowl begin!! Meanwhile, our men’s water polo team upset archrival UCLA, 10-8 in overtime! And our undefeated, top-ranked women’s volleyball team stayed that way, beating #18-ranked and previously undefeated Washington State, 3-0 (30-18, 30-21, 30-24) and defeating Washington, 3-0 (30-28, 30-19, 30-26).

The only bad news game from the homefront: Newington High School’s football team lost 36-18 to E.O. Smith. Next week they begin the CCC South conference season against Bulkeley.

Bad news: USC’s football team lost to Kansas State today, 27-20, our first loss of the season. Our defense was quite good in the first half, then fell apart in the second half; our quarterback was pretty good, but had no help; our offensive line was pretty damn bad throughout the game; our wide receivers had very slippery hands; and our special teams were pathetic. But hey, at least it wasn’t a conference game.

Good news: UCLA lost, too — and not just to any team, but to Colorado, the same team we beat 40-3 last week! The Bruins lost to the Buffaloes 31-17, which, if my math is right, produces an extrapolated USC margin of victory of 51 points over UCLA. And our win was at Colorado, whereas the Bruins’ loss was at home! So nyah!!!

Bad news: Newington High’s football team lost to Hall High today, 44-33.

Good news: Miss Connecticut made it into the Top 10 finalists round in the Miss America pageant.

Bad news: She didn’t win. Miss Illinois did.

Good news: USC’s women’s volleyball team is ranked #1 in the country!

Bad news: Hurricane Isidore is going to wallop someone pretty soon. As of 11:00 PM Pacific time tonight (Saturday), it had 125 mph winds. It’s going to at least brush the Yucatan Peninsula, and then… well, all I gotta say is, watch out, Texas. Here’s a satellite map as of Saturday night:

Unfortunately, it’s the other USC. The University of South Carolina Gamecocks defeated Clemson today and advanced to play the Texas Longhorns in the final. (The Cocks against the Horns? No comment.)

As for my USC, the Trojans didn’t quite reach the College World Series; they lost in the “super-regionals” on June 8 to Stanford (which lost to Texas yesterday in the CWS semifinals). So, alas, there will be no 13th national championship for USC baseball. But hey, we’re still the winningest athletic program in America!

As for the World Cup, the United States may have lost 1-0 to Germany, but we still have a lot to be proud of after our best run in the modern era.

And, hey, at least we’re not this guy:

Here’s the Summer Trojan article from before the championship match. (It’s a weekly paper over the summer, so the championship article will come out next week.)

Fight on for the USC men’s tennis team, the new national champions!!!

The Trojans, a huge underdog, won the championship as a #11-seed by defeating the #6, #3, #2, and #1 seeds, in that order. What a run!!! They capped it off with a triumphant 4-1 victory over defending champion Georgia in the NCAA title match Tuesday.

“This is unbelievable. I keep pinching myself,” said USC head coach Dick Leach, who is retiring after this season. “This is my Cinderella team.”

Click here for an article on the win over Georgia.

The Trojans upset #6-seed Baylor, #3-seed Illinois (my mom’s alma mater), and #2-seed Tennessee en route to the title match. USC freshman Prakash Armitraj, who won the clinchings point against Illinois, Tennessee and Georgia, was named NCAA Tournament MVP.

This is USC’s 16th NCAA title in tennis — its first since 1994 — and the university’s 94th national championship in all sports combined!!!

Just wanted to clear that up. My latest rant…

Sorry for the delay in posting photos of the sweatshop protest. I’ve been having technical difficulties with my computer. But the photos will be online soon. Here’s the Daily Trojan article about it.

Protesting against sweatshop labor! Student sit-in at USC administration offices! Check the news. Photos here soon. CP