Women of Troy look to bounce back after defeat
After losing its first match in more than five weeks, it might be tempting to assume the road-weary USC women’s volleyball team would feel deflated. Disappointed as they might be after Sunday’s loss to Arizona however, the Women of Troy are re-energized and hungry for another winning streak.
The team, ranked fourth in the nation in the latest coaches’ poll, will have a chance to regain its winning ways this weekend at home against their Pac-12 rivals from the state of Washington. USC will take on Washington State Friday night and then return to the Galen Center on Sunday to square off against the No. 3 Washington Huskies.
Though the Women of Troy certainly learned some tough lessons against Arizona this past Sunday, the last thing the team is looking to do right now is sit on the loss.
“I think I just have to blow this off,” USC head coach Mick Haley said about Arizona’s sweep. “We have to move forward and go to the next team. If it happens again, it will be a serious problem but if we dwell on this now, we’re wasting our energy.”
Though the outcome wasn’t ideal for USC, the team was able to find value in last weekend’s tough road trip as they approach the halfway point in the Pac-12 schedule.
“I think it’s a growing point,” senior middle blocker Alexis Olgard said. “You can’t win them all, and we have to take away what we did wrong and what we didn’t accomplish the week before.”
Specifically, Olgard believes that this is a crucial time for the underclassmen of the team to grow and do more on the court. With six freshmen on the squad’s 15-member roster, the team’s first-year players are expected to be important pieces to the puzzle as the Women of Troy move forward.
“After the game, we had a team meeting and told them that they aren’t freshmen anymore,” Olgard said. “We’re halfway through the season. Everyone needs to take on more responsibility and do a better job and keep pushing to keep our own promise to become national champions.”
For USC to start a new winning streak, it will have to survive this weekend against two tough teams in Washington State and Washington. The Cougars (16-6, 2-6 Pac-12) started the season on a 13-game winning streak but have since fallen on hard times, dropping six of their last eight matches in conference play.
The Women of Troy have won their past seven matches against the Cougars, the last one coming almost exactly one year ago when USC swept Washington State at the Galen Center. Though on paper it seems this match is headed for the same result, the team is not taking the Cougars lightly, especially after the surprise attack last weekend.
“Washington is tough but Washington State is our first match,” Haley said. “We have to play both matches this weekend. Washington State is young and dynamic, and they have a young coach who’s really got them fired up.”
Without a doubt, however, the marquee matchup of the weekend will be USC’s bout with Washington on Sunday evening. The two schools are tied for the lead in the Pac-12 Conference, but the Huskies currently have the edge in the coaches’ poll rankings due to USC’s loss last weekend. The squads most recently played each other on Oct. 26 of last year at the Galen Center when the Women of Troy pulled out the victory in five sets. The close matchup tells the story of their entire recent history: In their last 10 matches against each other, each school has won five.
“Washington is a great team,” Olgard said. “They’re always in the top five so I think we’re going to have another game hopefully like the Stanford game. That just depends on us and how we come out and play.”
Olgard will lead the offensive attack this weekend, bolstered on both sides by three star outside hitters: sophomore Samantha Bricio (who leads the team with 4.37 points per set), freshman Ebony Nwanebu and senior Sara Shaw. In order for the offensive attackers to be in position to score, they will have to rely on junior setter Hayley Crone to give them good looks. Crone, for one, is just happy to be back in Los Angeles.
“It’s comforting to play at home,” Crone said. “It’s nice to be in our own locker room in front of our fans instead of being cramped into a guest locker room. The Pac-12 is always a dogfight so it will be good to get these games at home.”
USC’s home-court advantage at the Galen Center cannot be understated — the Women of Troy are 99-10 all-time in the building and even those 10 losses have only come against five different schools. Thus far, the Women of Troy have not dropped a match at home this season.