NCAA Women's Lacrosse Preview: No. 20 USC Ready to Rack Up Miles

USA Lacrosse Magazine is beginning its countdown to the 2025 women's lacrosse season by releasing one team preview per day beginning on Monday, Jan. 13.

We start the countdown with No. 20 USC, which begins its first season in the Big Ten ready for the gauntlet ahead.

USC ended 2024 with a burst bubble.

A loss to Colorado in the semifinal of the last Pac-12 tournament — played at the Colosseum — did the Trojans in. The new year starts a turning of a page, and not just because USC will play its first season in the Big Ten.

Three of the program’s top five goal scorers from 2024 graduated, including leading scorer and Pac-12 Attacker of the Year Ella Heaney.

The defense has cleats to fill, too, including starting goalie Kait Devir and starting defender Danielle Carson (18 caused turnovers). The good news?

The Trojans return to California with an open mind.

“This group was willing to start with the blank slate,” head coach Lindsey Munday said. 

TOP RETURNERS

Isabelle Vitale, A, R-Sr. (23G, 41A)
Anna Regan, M, So. (120DC)
Alexis Niblock, D, Sr. (26CT, 41GB)

With so much new, the Trojans are leaning on their veterans for leadership and consistency. Munday says Vitale, the leading returning scorer, spent the fall establishing new connections with players who had been playing behind top attackers and offensive midfielders burgeoned by an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic.

Vitale — and the rest of the offense — will get a boost from Anna Regan, who led the team in draws as a freshman. Regan worked closely with a new assistant coach and Big Ten veteran Cassidy Spilis (Rutgers ‘24).

First-team all-conference pick Alexis Niblock, the team’s unanimous pick for lone captain, will anchor the defense and provide critical leadership during a youth movement.

KEY ADDITIONS

Kaylee Fravert, Fr., M (Sacred Heart Academy, N.Y.)
Alexis May, Fr., M (Colorado Academy, Colo.)
Coco Hauck, Fr., D (Dover Sherborn High School, Mass.)

Unlike USC rookies in recent history, this incoming freshman class is more likely to step in (and step up) quickly. Kaylee Fravert, who played midfield for Sacred Heart, has a strong lacrosse IQ and field vision. Munday said she could play midfield or help fill an empty spot on attack. Two-way midfielder Alexis May’s scrappiness and speed impressed the coaches in the fall, and Coco Hauck’s size and physicality make her a prime candidate to see time on defense with Carson gone.

NOTABLE DEPARTURES

Graduations: Maggie Brown, A; Danielle Carson, D; Kait Devir, G; Ella Heaney, A; Shelby Tinton, A

X-FACTOR

Hannah Barron, M, R-So. (2G, 1A, 3CT)

The 5-11 Barron has played in eight games in her first two seasons with the Women of Troy, but you might see more of her this year.

“She’s playing some of the best lacrosse she’s ever played on both sides of the ball,” Munday said. “She can run for days.”

That, combined with budding leadership skills and a height that can’t be taught (“She’s a tree,” Munday said), has Barron climbing the depth chart at a time when USC has holes at every position.

THE NARRATIVE

We’ve covered the departures ad nauseum at this point. But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this year’s USC team is how it handles the Big Ten. It’ll be trial-by-fire for a young team.

Long an annual contender in the Pac-12, USC will now get put through a gauntlet that includes a bevy of blue bloods in Maryland and Northwestern. And lest we forget much-improved Johns Hopkins and Michigan teams.

Unlike many other programs across the country — including Northwestern — which have enjoyed four years of veteran presences thanks to the COVID year, the Wolverines return most of their core from 2024. Munday doesn’t doubt these programs will find a way. And the Northwestern alum is excited to lock horns with members of one of the top two conferences nationally.

“We’ve always had high goals,” she said. “Every game is a big game in the Big Ten, and I think that mindset will help us significantly in terms of showing up and doing your best every single game.”

As for the frequent flyer miles the Women of Troy will accumulate trekking east to Maryland?

“Anyone who’s coached or played on the West Coast knows we are travel warriors,” Munday told USA Lacrosse Magazine in May.