Spring teams will keep title streak alive


I’ve got a fever and the only prescription is not more cowbell — sorry, Christopher Walken. Rather, I think the only cure here is a national championship from one of our USC athletics teams this spring.

USC has won at least one national team championship every year for the past eight years, which means the last year without a team title was 2006. Prior to the current streak, at least one team had won a national team title from 2001 to 2005.

Therefore, in the past 14 years, USC has won at least one championship in every  year but one.

As the school year begins to wind down, though, even I am beginning to get a little bit anxious as to whether our teams will be able to extend this unprecedented streak.

The Trojan faithful shouldn’t stress too much, though, because I’m not going to let this happen on my watch, and it appears that one of the USC spring sports teams is here to save the day.

Fortunately, for the sake of the streak, many of these teams are currently on fire, and it doesn’t look like firefighters are putting it out any time soon.

For starters, the Easter bunny seemed to be a good luck charm for USC teams this past weekend, as they went a perfect 10-0, with almost all of these wins coming against conference opponents.

As of April 1, USC had 11 teams that were ranked in the top-10, and three were ranked as the top team in the land.

Statistically speaking, USC has a relatively good chance of keeping the streak alive as long as one of these scorching teams can pull off a natty. The big question, though, is which one of these team has the best shot of winning a title in their respective sports?

There’s no doubt that a program that has caught much of our attention this spring is the USC baseball team, which currently owns its highest ranking since 2006 at No. 6. They kicked off the season as one of the hottest teams in all of collegiate baseball with a 12-0 start. They also sent a message to the rest of the nation early on after beating three of the nation’s best programs: TCU, Vanderbilt and crosstown rival UCLA, at Dodger Stadium.

The team has, indeed, carried the momentum into conference play by winning each of its three series in conference, including a sweep of Arizona, the first time they accomplished that feat since 2001.

The Trojans have a crucial Pac-12 series coming up at home this weekend against the Bruins, and while I think USC is in a great position to win a conference title and get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005 under third year-skipper Dan Hubbs, I don’t think they will be able to get through the gauntlet that makes up the postseason in collegiate baseball. It would be a huge accomplishment in itself even if the Trojans reached to the College World Series in Omaha.

To be honest, I think it will be one of the Women of Troy teams that will save the day in the end.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if either women’s sand volleyball, women’s golf or women’s tennis, which all currently boast No. 1 rankings, are able to win titles in their respective sports

The sand volleyball team, still  in just its fourth season under head coach Anna Collier, is probaly the hottest team at USC right now.

Currently boasting a perfect 15-0 record and coming off a huge win over defending champion Pepperdine at their home sand on Zuma Beach,  the Women of Troy are poised to become the new queens of the sand, should they be able to keep up their high level of play.

The only caviat here would be that women’s sand volleyball doesn’t become a full-fledged NCAA championship sport until next year.

Moving on, the top-ranked women’s tennis team has also been on top of its game lately with its current eight-match winning streak.

In the process, the Women of Troy have knocked off a number of ranked Pac-12 foes, putting them in good shape as they close out their regular season at home before moving onto the conference and NCAA Tournaments.

Also, on the men’s side, you can never count out head coach Peter Smith and his squad, who won four consecutive national titles leading up to 2013 and then secured USC’s 100th  NCAA Championship in 2014.

Finally, when you’re talking about legendary head coaches, you can’t go without talking the one and only Jovan Vavic and the water polo dynasty he has built.

The No. 3 ranked Women of Troy, which is led by the program’s all-time leading scorer in senior Monica Vavic, is currently on a six-game winning streak and is hungry to return to the national title game after losing to UCLA in the semifinals in 2014.

The program took home the national title the year before in 2013.

I really hope that these teams don’t let me down after I just talked them all up so much, but that’s honestly how confident I am in these teams’ ability to deliver in the postseason.

In an attempt to channel my inner Pat Riley, I feel so grateful to be a Trojan, and I’m guaranteeing to all USC fans that  at least one of these varsity teams will win a title this spring and keep the streak alive. Can you dig it?

Darian Nourian is a junior majoring in print and digital journalism. He is also the sports editor of the Daily Trojan. His column, “Persian Persuasion,” runs Thursdays.