With the stands packed with children taking advantage of free admission for “Kids Day,” the cheering never subsided during USC women’s volleyball’s face-off against Washington on Sunday afternoon at Galen Center. 

With just a few hiccups, the No. 22 Trojans (15-5, 6-4 Big Ten) defeated the unranked Huskies (9-11, 4-6) in four sets (25-20, 27-25, 21-25, 25-15), giving Head Coach Brad Keller his 100th career win and a golden volleyball to take home.

“One hundred wins is great, but it reminds me and makes me humble about how hard it was to get here,” said Keller, who has a 100-62 record in six seasons with USC, in a postgame news conference. “There [are] a lot of losses in the other column, too. It’s been a lot of hard work.”

To start off the festivities, the players threw mini volleyballs into the crowd after team introductions, giving some lucky kids a well-deserved souvenir. From then on, the stadium was electric — giving Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum a run for its money with fans nonstop dancing, clapping and waving their arms.

“There [are] a lot of kids and youth that come to our games [and camps], and they can’t wait to talk to our players, so to have that special event and have them [on] the end line just hanging out, I love that we can do that,” Keller said.

The Trojans got off to a dominant start in the first set, winning long rallies early on. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter London Wijay notched the first kill, foreshadowing the rest of her impressive match: She totaled 18 kills on the day, tied for her second-most in a game this season. 

However, the real weapons belonged to the arsenal of sophomore middle blocker Mia Tvrdy and redshirt junior outside hitter Adonia Faumuina, who combined for 10 kills on 21 total attempts in the first set alone. Freshman setter Reese Messer had 16 assists in the set and kept that momentum going all day, ending with season-high match totals of 48 assists and 16 digs to earn her Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors for the second time.

Though there was some back and forth with two lead changes and four ties, the Trojans’ late 3-point win streak — along with an energetic bench and on-court communication — propelled them to a 25-20 win. 

The second set was a more extreme tug-of-war, with a total of 13 ties and five lead changes. Though Washington took an early lead, USC remained close behind, never allowing the gap to grow larger than 3 points. 

The Trojans didn’t let the score ruin their mood, consistently making important plays to tie the game or lessen the point difference while smiling and laughing with each other between points. Faumuina, Wijay and Tvrdy continued racking up kills, with Wijay hitting a well-timed kill to give USC the upper hand late in the set and Tvrdy sealing the 27-25 win with a nice spike. 

The Trojans broke down in the third set, committing 11 errors in total — by far the most in a single set for either team. Faumuina stood out with three kills in a row early in the set while Wijay’s placement left Washington scrambling; however, it wasn’t enough to overcome the plethora of errors, and Washington took the third set 21-25. 

“We just compounded our issues drastically, and we were still only down 21-25, so that tells me that we’re playing at a high level, but our focus and our discipline [have] to continue to get better,” Keller said.

USC came back with a fervor in the fourth set, taking an early 7-3 lead and never looking back. The Trojans carried as high as an 11-point lead with a score of 22-11, eventually winning the set by 10 points with a kill by redshirt freshman outside hitter Brooklyn Tealer to take the match.

“This team is starting to understand who they are, how dynamic they are, how powerful they are, how they’re great people, and they’re starting to show their personality on the court,” Keller said. “When you get to that space, you start to see some good things.”

USC came out with the win despite an off day from freshman opposite hitter Abigail Mullen, who managed just one kill on 20 attempts after recording at least five kills in all of her previous matches. The Trojans will need Mullen in top form down the stretch as they look to the last third of their season and take on their next slate of Big Ten opponents. A rematch with the No. 25 Bruins (12-8, 6-4) looms on the horizon after they dominated the Trojan squad in straight sets earlier this month.

USC will look to extend its four-game win streak and get its revenge against UCLA at Galen Center on Wednesday at 7 p.m.