Volleyball heads to San Diego for Invitational


Freshman outside hitter Kalen Owes, who leads the Trojans with 97 kills, serves during USC’s 3-0 over Villanova at the Trojan Invitational. (Sinead Chang | Daily Trojan)

After winning the Trojan Invitational last weekend, the USC women’s volleyball team will head south to the University of San Diego Invitational No. 2 Thursday and Friday.

The team is hoping for another sweep this weekend against non-conference teams as it will play 4-4 University of San Diego and 3-6 Long Beach State. 

Some of USC’s veteran players could make their return this weekend. Senior outside hitter Khalia Lanier tried to come back after being cleared for her concussion this weekend but got sick during a match. Senior opposite hitter Emily Baptista is still not back from her knee injury. 

Although USC hasn’t been at full strength recently, other players have stepped in to fill key roles. Senior middle blocker Jasmine Gross had an exceptional performance over the weekend and received Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honors. Meanwhile, freshman outside hitter Kalen Owes was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. 

To win this week, it will be imperative for all the players to keep stepping up as they have been with the changing lineups. 

Head coach Brent Crouch said he has a good feeling about the team this year but acknowledged that this tournament will be difficult.

“Lanier’s missed a lot of time,” Crouch said. “We haven’t won all the matches where people were out, but we were competitive against really good teams, and that’s great.”

USD almost collected a sweep this weekend on the road, and it figures to bring plenty of confidence to the invitational against USC and CSULB. The Trojans have kept their errors under control, but USD has not been able to do the same, committing 149 errors this season. The Trojans will need to contain their own errors and take advantage of their opponents’ mistakes. 

The Trojans will also need a stingy defense against a USD offense that already has 418 kills and 36 aces this season. 

CSULB is also a strong offensive team, with seven players who already have at least 20 kills this season. The Trojans won’t be able to take the Beach lightly, despite its unimpressive record.

Long Beach struggles with ball handling and block errors, which is a huge advantage for the Trojans offensively. It is important for the Trojans not to get too comfortable in non-conference contests, especially after the success of the past weekend. Both opposing teams have plenty of extremely versatile players that could pose as threats to USC.

“There’s not a team we’ve played this year that I don’t think could beat us,” Crouch said. “If they are on fire, and they are playing well, and we lose a little focus or just don’t execute as well as we can, there is nobody that can’t beat us — and kind of vice versa.” 

USC cannot make the same mistakes it has in previous road tournaments, such as making too many errors. It’s important for the Trojans to stay focused and engaged in the games and learn through the previous road mistakes to ensure two wins this weekend. 

“Our team, because there are so many perfectionists, [is] learning how to work through mistakes when they happen because they are going to happen every game, every match at every level,” Crouch said. “Learning how to be OK with those and connecting and coming together — that is something we’ve been working on the last week.”