USC Women’s Volleyball Ends Regular Season With Cardinal and Bruins

Women’s volleyball | November 23, 2021

LOS ANGELES – The USC Women’s Volleyball Team (14-14, 9-9 Pac-12) completed its regular-season schedule by hosting traditional rivals No. 18 Stanford (16-10, 11-7) and No. 13 UCLA ( April 22, 15-3) at the Galen Center this week. Trojan — currently on a four-game winning streak — needs to win one more to secure post-season eligibility. Two wins and a six-match streak would earn the Troy Girls a spot in the NCAA tournament. USC is firmly in seventh place in the Pac-12 standings after winning 4-0 in their first season against schools in Arizona over the weekend.

MATCH #29 • Wednesday, November 24 • 4pm Pacific Time
USC (14-14, 9-9) vs 18 Stanford (16-10, 11-7)
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES RECORDS: USC trails, 26-67-1 (.277)
FINAL MEETING: L 1-3 (November 15, 2019 • Stanford, California)
STREA: Lost 8 • FINAL 10 MEETINGS: 1-9
WEB STREAM: Pac-12 Insider / USC Live Stream (Mark Beltran)
OPPORTUNITY WEBSITE: GoStanford.com

MATCH # 30 • Friday, November 26 • 7 p.m. Pacific Time
USC (14-14, 9-9) vs. UCLA 13 (April 22, 15)
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES RECORDS: USC leads, 60-57 (0.513)
FINAL MEETING: 1-3 (September 22, 2021 • Los Angeles, California)
STREA: Lost 1 • FINAL 10 MEETINGS: 4-6
LIVE SHOW: P12N (Anne Marie Anderson and Holly McPeak)
OPPORTUNITY WEBSITE: UCLABruins.com

SERVICE FIRST

• USC under the direction of the second year head coach Brad Keller who has also served as an assistant coach for the USC men’s volleyball team.
• Gr. OH Brooke Botkin was named for the All-Pac-12 Preseason Team and ranked fifth in the Pac-12 in kills (396 kills) and points (434.5).
• NS. NS Mia Tuaniga was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week (November 22) and placed 10th in the league in assists (693) and assists per set (8.15). aps).
• USC is the only Pac-12 team to have three players in the top 10 for hit percentage: Gr. MB Candice Denny Friday (.366), Fr. MB Tyrah Ariail Saturday (.360) and Gr. MB Sabrina Smith ninth (.353).
• The Trojans are 7-6 in home games this season and have been 178-51 (0.777) all time at Galen Center since the arena opened in 2006.
• The Troy Women are at number seven in the Pac-12 rankings.
• USC and Stanford have not met since 2019 due to the COVID-19 cancellation of last season. Cardinal has won eight games in a row against Trojans, and while USC has won 15-23 all-time against Stanford at home, its last win came in 2013.
• Last season, USC and UCLA split the top lane each time they won.

FINAL OUT: The Troys have extended their winning streak to four games, the longest streak of the season. USC clinched a 3-0 win over Arizona and then knocked out Arizona State in four sets to complete the team’s first 4-0 regular-season win over Arizona schools since 2015. Then, the Women of Troy faced Ivy League champion Brown in a non-conference game and beat the Bears in consecutive sets to improve to 14-14 during the season. OH Brooke Botkin had double-digit kills in all three games and recorded a career-high .591 hit rate in USC’s win over the Wildcats. She also moved forward to own the only 11th place in school history for homicides in the Trojan’s victory over Brown. NS Mia Tuaniga produced 60 assists against the Sun Devils in just four action sets and helped the Trojans hit .366 and .315 in two wins. LIB Shannon Scully posted her 23rd game of the season in double figures.

SETUP FOR SUCCESS: Settlers Mia Tuaniga won her first Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award on November 22 after a weekend when she set Trojan to 0.366 and 0.315 hit the percentage to win over Arizona and ASU. Tuaniga had 28 assists in the Wildcats sweep and had 60 assists in a four-set win over the Sun Devils. This is the 20th time a USC player has won the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week title since the convention held the award in 2011; and is the first time for a Trojan since Kalen Owes selected on September 26, 2019.

BRIGHT FUTURE: USC signed a trio of coveted prep athletes for National Letters of Intent on Nov. 10, OPP/S Adonia Faumuina (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly HS), OH Jordan Middleton (Phoenix, Ariz./Hamilton HS) and LIB Gala Trubint (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch HS) will be joining the Women of Troy for the 2022 season. Middleton is the nation’s 2nd place player and Faumuina is in 7th place on the list. PrepVol Football.comrecruitment ranking of. Trubint ranks 90, and this trio includes the publication’s #1 ranked recruiting class of 2022. All three signatories will represent USC as Americans in Armor, and both Middleton and Trubint are booked. Named to the first team of AVCA’s All-American High School. USC earned #2 in the nation’s top-ranked recruiting classes in 2013 and 2014 but earned the top spot for the first time since 2010 when its class included three All-Americans. in LIB Natalie Hagglund, OH Falyn Fonoimoanaand MB Alexis Olgard Go with Kirby Burnham, Sam Hirschmann, and Sara Shaw.

SHOCKING-Shooting: USC is the only Pac-12 team to have three players in the league’s top 10 for hit percentage. Gr. MB Candice Denny rank Friday (.366), Father MB Tyrah Ariail rank Saturday at .360 and Gr. MB Sabrina Smith To be ninth with a percentage of .353. No other team is represented by two individuals. Stanford (nos 12 and 14) and Washington State (nos 5 and 15) both have two players in the top 15, but only one out of those four are in the top 10.

AGREE DISCLAIMER: Women of Troy leads all-time series with UCLA rival by a 60-57 margin. Ask someone blue and yellow and they’ll tell you otherwise. The Bruins claimed to be leading the series, 68-59, but how? The UCLA program, which began in 1972, was several years older than the USC program, which began in 1976. The Bruins won a number of victories over the Troys before the Women of Troy officially began the program. is different. During those four seasons, the Bruins racked up 11 wins against USC’s club team, which counts toward a UCLA all-time record.

CROSSTOWN CONNECTION: USC Head Coach Brad Keller The only difference is having coached both the boys and girls volleyball programs at both USC and UCLA. Before coming to USC, he served one season (2019) as UCLA’s associate head coach. USC . Technical Coordinator Virginia Pham graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2015 and served three seasons as a student assistant for several Bruins volleyball programs. MB Graduation Trojan Sabrina Smith played three seasons (redshirt in 2017) at UCLA and received a bachelor’s degree in psychology in May 2021 before transferring to USC for graduate studies. Assistant Coach UCLA Eric barber served as USC’s volunteer assistant coach during the 2018 season.