Women’s volleyball begins new win streak

After dropping their first match of the season last Friday, the No. 2-ranked USC women’s volleyball team will look to start a new winning streak this weekend when Colorado and Utah come to town for two big conference matchups.

The Trojans will battle against the Buffaloes on Friday at 8 p.m. before they face the Utes on Sunday at 11 a.m. in the Galen Center.

USC (23-1, 11-1 Pac-12) had their 22-match winning streak and the fourth-best start in program history snapped by No. 5-ranked Washington last weekend in Seattle. It was a challenging road trip for the Women of Troy, who were playing their second consecutive week away from home.

Luckily, the team and head coach Mick Haley will get some much needed rest and stay home for the next four matches.

“We have taken two days off this week … we really needed to recover from those two trips up north,” Haley said. “Hopefully we can get back healthy and get rested up with this home stand.”

Colorado (14-10, 6-6) was one of just three teams to push the Trojans to five sets this season when they did so back in early October. In that match, four USC players had at least 15 kills in one of the team’s most balanced offensive outputs all season. Senior outside hitter Samantha Bricio led the team with 17 kills, while three other players — senior middle blocker Alicia Ogoms, sophomore opposite Brittany Abercrombie and freshman outside hitter Alyse Ford — all tallied then-career highs of 15 kills apiece.

“[The Buffs] played us very tough out in Colorado,” Haley said. “That was our first five-game match of the year, and they were really playing well. We expect them to come in here to be ready to go on Friday, so we need to be really good.”

Utah (9-14, 3-9) will also be looking to avenge their early season loss against the Women of Troy back in Salt Lake City. That match saw Bricio lead USC once again with 17 kills, as the Trojans outhit (.243 to .073) and out blocked (10 to 3) the Utes to collect the 3-0 sweep. USC also leads the all-time series against the Utes, 14-2, and have won nine of the last 10 meetings.

“We have to turn around with Homecoming and all of that and play Utah on Sunday morning,” Haley said. “That’s ‘Dads and Daughters’ Day [in the Galen Center], so it’s going to be an unbelievable home weekend. The players are just going to have to stay focused and stay with it.”

The next two matches could also be big for the senior All-American Bricio.

The 6-foot-2 attacker is close to breaking the school record for kills, which was set by Alex Jupiter (2008-11) with 1,918 career kills. Bricio needs just 64 kills to surpass Jupiter and would move into 10th place in Pac-12 history if she did so this weekend.

USC will honor all-time greats Toni Anderson and Katie Olsovsky, members of the 2002 and 2003 NCAA championship teams, in between sets two and three of the Colorado match on Friday.