USC falls in Final Four


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The Women of Troy’s quest for a national championship is officially over.

The No. 6 USC women’s volleyball team fell to Pac-10 opponent No. 7 California and was denied its fifth trip to the national championship game.

USC lost in straight sets, 25-14, 25-17, 25-20.

“The whole team had trouble getting into a rhythm and following our own system,” junior outside hitter Alex Jupiter said. “Cal did a good job defensively. I feel that they came up with some things we didn’t really expect.”

Last week in the Elite Eight, the Women of Troy knocked off Stanford after losing to the Cardinal twice in the regular season.

This week, the story was the exact opposite.

USC played the Golden Bears twice during the regular season and won both matches. But it proved too difficult for the Women of Troy to come away with another win when it mattered most.

“It’s very difficult to beat a team three times,” coach Mick Haley said. “We lost twice and got a chance to beat Stanford a third time to get here, but I really thought we could handle this. I really thought we could do this better.”

USC got off to a rough start and could never recover. Within the first few points, the team was called for both rotation and net violations. USC’s hitting percentage in the first set was a shocking -.027.

“We came out with really high expectations for this match and it’s hard to get down at the beginning, especially such a big deficit right at the beginning when you fall out of groove and start making errors,” junior middle blocker Lauren Williams said. “It’s something really hard to come back from.”

The number of errors for USC at times was greater than its number of kills. The team had 19 in the match, compared to California’s 15.

California outside hitter Tarah Murrey proved to be too strong a force for the Women of Troy. The junior had 23 kills and 14 digs, hitting an impressive .413 on the night. Fellow outside hitter, freshman Adrienne Gehan, added another 14 kills for the Golden Bears.

Unlike Murrey, USC’s outside hitters struggled. Jupiter had eight kills, while freshman Falyn Fonoimoana had only six. Williams added another six kills for USC.

The numbers pretty much tell the story of the match. The Golden Bears hit .297, while USC only managed a hitting percentage of .107. California ended with 50 kills, while USC only had 32.

En route to this Final Four appearance, USC tallied four impressive wins. The first two came against New Mexico and San Diego. USC hosted these opening round matches at the Galen Center. Last weekend, the Women of Troy swept Indiana in the regional semifinal before knocking off Stanford.

This was USC’s sixth time in the Final Four in the last 11 years. The team entered tonight’s match riding a nine-match winning streak, having also won 15 out of 16.

California will move on and face three-time defending champion Penn State this Saturday in the national championship game.

The future for USC looks bright. The team had six freshmen on the roster this year and is only losing three seniors. USC finished the season with a record of 29-5 and was third in the Pac-10 standings, behind California and Stanford.

“I think we have to use this loss tonight and use also how well we did this season and how far we got as a driving point for next year,” Williams said. “We need to come back in January and start doing what we need to do. Our whole starting lineup is coming back, and that’s going to be a big building point this spring to all work together.”