USF fall sports is in its closing weeks, with the soccer teams’ seasons finalized, and the cross country and women’s volleyball teams on their last stretch of competition.
Men’s soccer closed out their season campaign 1-1, with a (1-0) win over Saint Mary’s at the Hilltop on Nov. 8 and a (2-3) loss at Seattle University on Nov. 14. In their final game, sophomore forward David Raphael scored both the team’s points, crowning him as the team’s goal leader with eight total in the season.
The team finishes their season with a 10-6-1 record, with a 5-4 West Coast Conference (WCC) record, improving from their 7-6-4 record from last year. They placed fourth in the WCC standings.
The team announced last week that Head Coach Chris Brown received a contract extension that will keep him locked in until the 2030 season.
Women’s soccer ends their season with a 3-11-4 record, regressing from their 5-11-2 record last year. Their last game included a 1-3 loss vs Pepperdine University on Nov. 8.
Reflecting on his first two years as head coach, Pinder Nijjar said, “From a results standpoint, it’s been very difficult, [we have] not gotten the results we have wanted to get. We saw improvement from this year compared to last year from the way we play […] the results didn’t improve unfortunately from a consistent standpoint,” he said in the postgame interview.
“I just feel like we’re close, we’re nearly there, with a couple of players, key players depth wise away from really making a push into the top part of the conference,” he said.
The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the NCAA West Regional Championship on Nov. 14 in Sacramento. The women’s team finished 11th out of 39 teams. Junior Anna Büttner once again led her team, finishing 14th in the women’s 6k, clocking a time of 20:04.2. Junior Faustine Chaboche trailed in 33rd place with a time of 20:30.4. Following the race, the team announced that Büttner qualified as an individual for the NCAA Division l Cross Country Championship that will take place on Nov. 22 in Colombia, Mo.
The men’s team placed 14th out of 30 teams. Grad student Ethan O’Shea led the way for the Dons in the men’s 10k, finishing 43rd with a time of 30:21.1.
Women’s volleyball broke their seven game losing streak with back-to-back home wins against Saint Mary’s (3-2) on Nov. 13 and Loyola Marymount University (3-1) on Nov. 15.
Middle blocker Sina Toroslu said in the post conference after the Saint Mary’s victory said, “I think we overall feel really relieved because that’s something [we] worked really hard for […] to get these few points done in the end is so relieving and just awesome to feel this connection in the team again.” The grad student finished with 11 kills and eight blocks.
USF stands at 5-20 for the season, sitting 10th place out of 12th in WCC standings. In the midst of a five game homestand, the team has three games left, with matches against University of Pacific on Nov. 22, Seattle University on Nov. 25 and Washington State on Nov. 29.
