Women’s volleyball opens at home with Trojan Invitational
The Trojans will look to turn their season around in the confines of Galen Center.
DRAKE LEE
After playing five straight matches away from Galen Center to start the season, USC will host the Trojan Invitational this weekend in front of fans wearing cardinal and gold. The Trojans went 1-4 on their road trip, including two losses against ranked teams.
“[The 1-4 stretch] is really good because it has given us a standard of what we need to do,” Head Coach Brad Keller said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “It exposes the weaknesses or the things we need to get better at.”
Offensively, senior outside hitter Skylar Fields has a team-leading 97 kills, well above last season’s pace. Through five games last season, the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American had 69 kills on the season.
Senior middle blocker Lindsey Miller has the second-most kills on the team with 38, while also leading the team in hitting percentage and blocks.
“It was really all the work we put in the spring … and of course, great pin blockers always help us too, setting up the block for me so I can close and shut it down,” Miller said.
Along with Miller, redshirt sophomore middle blocker Tyrah Ariail is having a breakout season after redshirting her sophomore year. Ariail has the fourth-most kills and the third-most blocks on the team.
Junior setter Mia Tuaniga orchestrates the offense for the Trojans. She is averaging almost 9 assists per set, the ninth-best mark in the Pac-12.
“I’m just really getting to take a step back and watch the game and then grow my own game coming back,” Ariail said.
In the backcourt, sophomore libero Gala Trubint leads the Trojans with 64 digs, while graduate libero Ellie Snook is close behind with 59 digs.
This weekend, at Galen Center, USC will play UC Davis, Marist College and the University of San Diego, none of which have winning records. Last season, the Trojans went a combined 8-9 in away and neutral games, compared to a 14-2 record at home.
“I think I’ve only played [at Galen Center] twice,” Ariail said. “I just can’t wait for that atmosphere, and for fans to be in there and my family. I’m just super excited to represent USC.”
The Trojans will start off against UC Davis on Friday. The Aggies are 3-3 after going 15-15 last season. UC Davis is 290th out of 331 Division 1 schools in kills per set with a 10.26 average. By comparison, the Trojans are 141st in the nation, with an average of 12.53. For the Aggies, junior opposite hitter Olivia Utterback has a team-leading 61 kills, while freshman outside hitter Reese Diersbock has 48 kills.
“We’re gonna work on a game plan about how to expose their weaknesses … and we’ll get into what that looks like,” Keller said. “And we’ll get better at first contact, which is always serve and pass.”
On Saturday, the Trojans will face Marist. The Foxes dropped their first three games before getting their first win and now stand at 2-4. Marist has a hitting percentage of .179, while opponents are hitting .271 against them. Senior outside hitter Sasha van der Merwe leads the Foxes with 85 kills. However, she also has 53 errors, contributing to a .129 hitting percentage.
Finally, USC will play San Diego on Sunday. In the preseason AVCA poll, San Diego was No. 13. However, four straight losses to start the season forced the Toreros out of the Top 25. Three Toreros — senior middle blocker Leyla Blackwell, graduate outside hitter Amber Stivrins and senior outside hitter Kylie Pries — all have 40 kills or more.
USC women’s volleyball will return to Galen Center with a match against UC Davis Friday at 7:00 p.m. before playing Marist Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The team will round out the weekend with San Diego Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
Joshua Sacher contributed to this report.
