This post was updated Oct. 27 at 11 p.m.

Two rivals met with two different paths of approach.

The occasion was the crosstown showdown between No. 8 UCLA women’s soccer (13-3-3, 8-1-2 Big Ten) and No. 6 USC (14-1-2, 10-0-1). In a 1-0 victory, the Trojans claimed their first-ever outright conference championship.

“I’m glad that the loss comes now,” coach Margueritte Aozasa said. “If you have to choose a time for us to lose, I think it’s worth noting we lost to USC before, and things ended up just fine for us at the end of the year.”

The Bruins and Trojans showed up to compete for the Big Ten regular season title, making their way to the Dignity Health Sports Park, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy. In 2022, UCLA lost to USC in its final regular season game – but ultimately claimed the national title.

Despite the seemingly neutral location, USC emphasized that the game was its home game, having switched from its campus stadium only a week ago.

Before the game began, tension seemed high in Carson – chants from both the Bruin and Trojan faithful broke out as USC’s marching band echoed behind.

UCLA launched its efforts Sunday afternoon with six defenders on the field, bringing graduate student defender Maya Evans and senior defender Quincy McMahon to the frontline.

USC, meanwhile, opted for an offense-first approach, ushering just two defenders to the field to start – Alyssa Gonzales and Brooklyn Courtnall.

The teams’ tactics echoed their respective strengths prior to Sunday’s start, with the Bruins allowing the least in the Big Ten and the Trojans tying atop conference standings for goals scored.

USC ultimately logged five shots on goal to UCLA’s one – which did not occur until the 43rd minute – and registered three corner kicks in the first 10 minutes alone.

“The biggest thing was just limiting the unforced errors. I think we have a specific game plan, and we weren’t really playing to it as Marg (Aozasa) alluded to in the first 30 minutes,” McMahon said. “So just playing more of our style and a little bit more together, just short little five- and 10-yard passes that we knew we could connect.”

Junior midfielder Sofia Cook – who has four goals this season – sophomore forward Taylor Cheathem and freshman forward Kara Croone’s substitutions in the 29th minute flipped the team’s approach, which Aozasa said was to prime its offensive power.

“Just more potency in the attack, and I thought they (Cheatham, Croone and Cook) did that,” Aozasa said. “I thought as soon as we conceded, the game changed a little bit. We had some good chances at the end of the first half.”

From there, the Bruins began to play more aggressively, occupying Trojan territory more and earning their first corner.

However, USC was able to capitalize offensively first – as forward Malie Hayes slipped the ball past graduate student goalkeeper Ryan Campbell.

The score remained 1-0 throughout the second half – and through the match, at that – despite UCLA making numerous substitutions.

“We just wanted a high energy – so high energy, high tempo,” Aozasa said. “Our players knew, and I thought they did a good job of playing in 10, 15 minute shifts. And they know that when you’re on the field, even if it’s for a short amount of time, your job is to give as much energy as you can.”

It took the Bruins 67 minutes to manage their first shot on goal. Evans nearly found the back of the net before USC goalkeeper Laurence Gladu batted the ball out of bounds.

Though the game was relatively clean in the first half, the Bruins tallied three different yellow cards for unsportsmanlike conduct through the second frame.

Although Hayes was given a yellow card with less than two minutes remaining, the Bruins failed to capitalize on their last free kick.

“There’s two ways that you can come out after losing a game, and either this can fire us up, or we can just keep putting our heads down going into a Big Ten tournament,” senior defender Jayden Perry said. “So I’m really excited to see what our team does going into the Big Ten tournament.”