Women of Troy extend winning streak to 11

In their last tournament before the start of Pac-12 conference play, the USC women’s volleyball team brought the heat to the Southwest and defeated the Oklahoma Sooners in the first game of the 2015 Oklahoma Invitational on Thursday night.

The No. 3-ranked Women of Troy, who were playing just their fourth game away from the Galen Center all season, earned a hard-fought 3-1 victory at the McCasland Field House over tournament host Oklahoma by a 25-14, 23-25, 25-20, 25-20 score. The win over the Big 12 foe now moves USC to a perfect 11-0 record on the season.

While USC’s 30-set winning streak was snapped in the second set, the Sooners weren’t able to sustain that momentum and could not break through the staunch Women of Troy defense.

“I think for the most part, we did quite well,” head coach Mick Haley said. “We had pretty balanced and even scoring from our players throughout the match too — I think we could have finished a little better, but a 3-1 win on the road is pretty good for us.”

USC outblocked Oklahoma 12 to four overall, while also outdigging the Sooners, 49-39.

Junior libero Taylor Whittingham, who leads the Pac-12 in digs with 4.90 digs per set, had a match-high 19 digs to lead USC’s defense. Senior middle blocker Alicia Ogoms, the Pac-12’s leading blocker with 1.68 blocks per set, was yet again a force at the net, tallying 11 kills on a .526 hitting clip and adding a match-high eight blocks. Furthermore, junior middle blocker Elise Ruddins contributed eight kills and no errors on 12 swings for a .667 hitting night while adding four blocks of her own.

On offense, senior outside hitter Samantha Bricio led USC with 24 points with 19 kills on a .366 hitting percentage. Bricio, the nation’s leader in points (6.32) and aces (0.81) per set, added to those numbers with three service aces and four blocks. Freshman Alyse Ford finished second on the team with a career-high 13 kills on an impressive .500 hitting clip.

“The offense was really clicking,” Haley said. “The team hit for an average that is much higher than what teams normally hit.”

The Women of Troy started fast out of the gates, winning the first set 25-14 thanks to a solid .583 team hitting percentage. Bricio hit an impressive .750 in the first frame with six kills and no errors on just eight swings. Her two service aces ended the first set and extended USC’s winning streak to 30 sets in a row.

The second set saw the Sooners put up much more of a fight, however, as USC trailed by as many as six points in the beginning of the set. Back and forth play allowed the Women of Troy to catch up and eventually take the lead at 22-21, but timely Oklahoma kills ended USC’s set winning streak with a 23-25 loss in the second frame.

The 30-set streak that was broken is tied for the second longest ever in program history. The last USC team to win 30 straight sets was Mick Haley’s 2002 National Championship squad, set back in 2002 (Nov. 8-Dec. 13).

After intermission, the Women of Troy shut the door on the Sooners and pulled out the last two sets with a 25-20 win in set three and a 25-20 win in set four to seal the match.

“This is the reason we schedule these kinds of matches before we start conference,” Haley said. “We’re playing away from home, they have a good crowd tonight with their band and the football team harassing us, and everything sets us up for our opening night over at UCLA.”

With the win, USC improved to 4-0 all-time against Oklahoma and extended their winning streak to 11 straight games to stay undefeated on the season.

The Women of Troy will now ride their momentum into an afternoon matchup tomorrow against Big Ten foe Maryland. The Terrapins (10-2) are coming off a 3-0 loss against Washington earlier in the day in this same tournament. USC has won both of the all-time meetings against Maryland, with the last meeting being a 3-0 sweep in September of 2014 in Seattle.

The last game of the Oklahoma Invitational against the Terrapins is set to begin at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.