The Trojans’ lone tournament at Norman Stadium this spring shifted from sunburns to sweatshirts and celebration to senior send-off — stuffing a full season of home history into one weekend.

No. 3 USC beach volleyball (8-2) put together a near-perfect sweep of the Battle for Los Angeles. On Saturday, the Trojans secured 4-1 victories against both No. 16 Washington (3-5) and No. 8 Long Beach State (3-3). The day before, USC had hammered unranked Concordia University Irvine (4-4) and Pepperdine (2-6) without dropping a single set.

“[We are] really starting to make some progress on our real technical stuff. We’re more focused on the process of getting better than we are the end result,” Head Coach Dain Blanton said in an interview with the Daily Trojan on Saturday. “When you’re getting better, you’re learning lessons and you’re winning, that’s always a good sign.”

In between Friday’s duals, the Trojans unveiled their 2024 championship banner, with Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen and a crowd of family present to witness the moment. With six out of the last eight NCAA beach volleyball chips, the Trojans’ legacy of dominance is undisputed.

“Every time I walk in here and I look at those banners, I feel something,” said freshman Kennedy Coakley in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I want to come here, and I want to win … I want to come out and smash them. I want to win.”

The Trojans are grappling with the departure of six of the 10 starters from last season’s four-peat championship roster. With an influx of newcomers, Blanton is still tweaking and testing rotations to determine the best pairs of youngbloods and veterans.

Junior Madison White and sophomore Zoey Henson are making a firm case for themselves at the No. 1 position. The pair fist-pumped their way through straight-set victories, while senior Megan Kraft — the Trojans’ long-time No. 1 and two-time All-American — commended the duo’s dominance from the bleachers.

Meanwhile, Coakley, the nation’s No. 1 high school recruit, ascended to the No. 2 position to compete alongside her former club volleyball partner, sophomore Ashley Pater. On Friday, the duo of Florida natives outscored their opponents by 33 points.

“We’re really fun to watch because we are super energetic. Ashley gets a lot of cool digs [and] I do a lot of crazy celebrations,” Coakley said. “There’s some Florida juice in there. We like to stir the pot a little bit, so it gets feisty, but in the best way.”

While the Trojans easily waved goodbye to Pepperdine and Concordia, No. 4 pair, junior Delaney Karl and sophomore Kaileigh Truslow, exceeded their teammates’ time on the sand. Despite multiple second-set match points, the duo could not evade a three-setter against Concordia but ultimately notched the 21-16, 22-24, 15-12 victory unfazed.

Against Pepperdine, the pair initially struggled to respond to the Waves’ acute serving. But after losing a narrow first set, the duo’s teammates, decked out in matching “fierce” pink sweatsuits, lined the sand as Karl maximized her net presence to cruise past Pepperdine in three.

The top-3 matchups against Washington on Saturday were tightly contested, with only one set decided by more than 3 points. The Trojans’ No. 3 pair of junior Mabyn Thomas and sophomore Madison Goellner edged out a 2-0 victory (21-19, 21-18) on the back of several well-placed tips and good communication. By the inverse score, the No. 2 pair, Coakley and Pater, dropped the Trojans’ only game against Washington.

Just before USC’s No. 1 pair, White and Henson, took to the sand, Thomas and Goellner were deep into their first set, which was tied at 16. Meanwhile, the No. 5 pair of freshman Calinda Kok and graduate student Ella Larkin were deadlocked with their opponents at nine in the first set of what would be a 2-1 win (23-25, 21-18, 15-11). It wasn’t any less contested for the top duo.

Despite USC taking a 6-1 lead early, the top Huskie pair would work back to a 16-16 tie and eventually force extra points. After two late service errors cost the Trojans momentum, White went up for a block, but a deceptive poke slammed the ball right into her face for a Washington point, helping the visitors to a first-set victory.

While she may not have taken the head shot personally, it sure looked like it as White and Henson battled for a come-from-behind 21-19 second set win and a dominant 15-8 finisher.

“That was one of our first times dropping that first set and having to crawl our way back,” White said. “For us, it was going out swinging the way we wanted to go out, not getting timid and letting them get in our heads, bringing the energy, being louder than our opponents and, ultimately, that worked for us today.”

White and Henson would ride the momentum into their ensuing matchup with the Beach, controlling the lead for most of the 21-17, 21-17 win.

Against the Beach, Thomas and Goellner nearly completed a similar comeback after dropping the first set, 21-16, and taking the second, 21-15. Up 10-8 in the third set, a USC service error gave the Long Beach pair the momentum to go on a 5-1 run and eventually take the deciding set, 15-12.

USC’s No. 4 duo, Karl and Truslow, continued to dominate with their second straight-set win of the day (21-13, 21-15) against Long Beach. On Saturday, the pair won by five or more in all four of its sets.

Against the Beach, Pater and Coakley bounced back from their loss to Washington by winning another thrilling, come-from-behind game for the Trojans in a 17-15 extra-point third set, after dropping the first set, 21-17. The No. 2 duo’s victory was the third time a Trojan pair won a game after losing the first set on Saturday alone.

“It’s one thing to come out and roll teams and win 2-0, but it’s another thing to lose, have that adversity, dig deep, come back and win, and that’s what we did on those courts,” Blanton said.

The Trojans are back in action Friday and Saturday for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Midseason Rumble at Stanford. On both days, USC will play two games, including a rematch with No. 5 Stanford (7-3), who beat the Trojans 3-2 on Feb. 21, and a bout with No. 9 UC Berkeley (7-1). USC will begin play with a game against Grand Canyon University (7-1) at 8 a.m. Friday.