Beach volleyball prepares for season opener
After a triumphant 2022 season that saw the Trojans capture the Pac-12 title and their second consecutive NCAA title, No. 4 beach volleyball will take to the court this weekend to kick off the new season.
“We’re super excited,” said junior Delaynie Maple, who started last season on court three. “I’ve never seen a group honestly work this hard. Girls are coming in, day in and day out, and putting in a ton of work, so I’m just excited to see everything put into place.”
The Trojan team that takes the court this season will look very different from the roster that secured both championship titles last season. Six of the 10 starters from last season are gone: Olympian Tina Graudina and All-American Hailey Harward from court one, All-American Sammy Slater from court two and 2021 All-American Julia Scoles who played with Maple on court three.
“We had a spectacular team the last couple of years. You know, I think that was the best team ever assembled in college [beach] volleyball,” said Head Coach Dain Blanton. “That’s the beauty of collegiate sports … we’ve got a lot of new players and so every rap and every touch is crucial to get younger players up to speed so that they can be as good as they can be.”
Joining Maple are the remaining starters from last year’s lineup: two-time All-American Megan Kraft, who started last season on court two, and two-time AVCA top-flight winners Audrey and Nicole Nourse, who started together last season on court four.
“We had so many seniors last year that we were kind of able to take how each of them tried to lead the team and we saw what worked,” Maple said. “It was just implementing our team culture, the team standards we want and all the freshmen and the transfers have been like sponges. They’re taking every ounce of information in, which has been awesome.”
In addition to their returning starters, the Trojans drew in some big names during the transfer season. USC secured AVCA All-American graduate Madison Shields from Pepperdine, where she spent the entire season playing on court one. Along with Shields, USC was able to nab graduate Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope, who primarily played at court one for Louisiana State University in 2022 and senior Jenna Johnson, who transferred from Florida State where she played across courts two, three and four.
“We’re getting so many new components, so many new personalities which have been awesome,” Maple said. “Everyone’s super excited. Everyone I think has the right mindset and very, very excited to put a jersey back on.”
After a long off-season with nothing to do but train and wait, the Trojans are more than ready to put their new roster to the test.
“We’ve been training for so long, it’s going to be so nice to finally compete, and I know all the players are looking forward to that,” Blanton said. “We look at it as the season, not what we did years ago or whatever. How can we be the best version of ourselves this year, and I think we’re on track to do some damage.”
While the Trojans are proud of their success last season, they are not letting it influence their mindset as they enter this season.
“You have to remember that all of the pressure and the stress is pretty much made up in your own head,” Maple said. “It’s time to recreate another story, try and do our best to accomplish the goals we did last year. But try not to live in the past and make our own future with this team, which I think is going to be really exciting.”
The Trojans’ first challenge of the season will come this weekend as they host No. 6 Grand Canyon University and No. 14 Long Beach State this Friday.
“Grand Canyon and Long Beach have always been known to be really scrappy teams and really gritty teams and trying to get it done no matter what,” Blanton said. “They don’t play conventional, they’ll do some stuff and you’ve got to be ready for it … we’ve got to be ready for everything.”
The Trojans will kick off the season Friday at 12:15 p.m. at Merle Norman Stadium.