The sound of USC’s fight song bounced around Rawlinson Stadium like a ball in a pinball machine.
It’s like the Trojan band, crowd and stadium speakers were all fighting to be the loudest sound on campus.
But they all failed to match the Bruins’ cheers when they were awarded an 88th-minute penalty kick after VAR review, and they didn’t come close to the deafening pandemonium that followed junior forward Kara Croone’s game-winning goal just seconds later.
Not even two minutes after USC women’s soccer (2-10-6, 1-7-4 Big Ten) forward Peyton Nakagawara tied the game to bring the Trojan faithful to life, Croone’s second goal of the game lifted No. 14 UCLA (12-4-2, 9-2-1 Big Ten) to a 3-2 win in both teams’ regular-season finale. With the win, UCLA earned the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will face No. 7 seed Wisconsin on Wednesday in St. Louis.
“It’s always good to win against our rivals. It was a hard-fought battle,” Croone said. “Definitely some things to work on, but we got the win, and that’s all that we could ask for.”
The Bruins looked like they’d be able to put on cruise control and ride out a 2-0 lead with around 10 minutes remaining – but Nakagawara changed that with a goal in the 81st minute and another in the 87th.
“I haven’t smiled this much in a long time,” said junior defender Paloma Daubert. “I was so frustrated after we got scored on twice, and knowing that Kara – who always makes her penalties – goes up to take the penalty, I already felt the bad energy drain away from me, and I was beyond happy and ecstatic from then on. And I still am.”
Croone covered the bookends of the Bruins’ scoring efforts, with her 48th-minute goal getting UCLA on the scoreboard first.
The junior finished the regular season with a team-leading eight goals – two more than senior forward Oruha Hayashi, who had the second most. No other Bruin scored more than three this campaign.
Croone had just two goals across 21 games in 2025, and just a single score in an injury-shortened freshman season.
Junior defender Paloma Daubert scored her first goal of the season – and her first in more than two years – off a 66th-minute penalty kick the Bruins received following a foul against sophomore forward Payten Cooper.
“It’s all about preparation,” said coach Gof Boyoko. “We won a lot of games 1-0 or plus 1. So if that’s what we need to do to advance, we have to be prepared for this. We have to be prepared for overtime, and we have to be prepared for penalty kicks.”
Boyoko, Croone and Daubert all agreed that the main objective during the brief break between the end of the regular season and start of the conference tournament is rest and recovery.
The trio added that the Bruins will need to tighten up their game management before heading to Missouri.
“We can defend when we want to and attack when we need a goal,” Boyoko said. “We proved that we can do that. … I’m just really pleased and super excited.”
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