Trojans cleanup on Manhattan Beach
The sun came out for this past weekend’s East Meets West Invitational in Manhattan Beach, and the Trojans were sizzling. No. 3 USC could not be beaten as the team took down four ranked opponents and extended its win streak to seven since its sole loss to No. 1 TCU on March 17
USC played two duals Friday and two Saturday. Besides USC, the invitational featured No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 Florida State, No. 5 LSU, No. 7 LMU, No. 8 Hawai’i, No. 11 Georgia State and No. 16 FIU.
The tournament commenced as a swell of Tigers fans gathered on the sidelines to watch the Trojans face LSU. Senior Nicole Nourse silenced the crowd on court four with a dual-clinching ace, leading to USC’s 4-1 triumph over the Tigers.
Head Coach Dain Blanton said that the win over LSU established the Trojans’ playing style for the remainder of the tournament.
“Whether you’re switching partners or positions, LSU really just set the tone because that was on Friday morning,” he said. “We knew going into the weekend, this was going to be a big challenge to play four really good teams … All those teams have really great athletes, so we knew we needed some of our best stuff to survive the weekend and go 4-0.”
Tensions ran high later on Friday as the Trojans found themselves down 1-2 in a dual against FSU. At the top spot, juniors Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple evened the dual score with a 15-21, 25-23, 15-13 win. Moments later, the No. 3 pair — graduate student Madison “Maddog” Shields and freshman Madison White — battled for another three-set victory. USC concluded the dual with a 3-2 score.
White accredited the team’s ability to thrive in high-pressure situations to their trust in one another.
“We’ve had a lot of three-setters this season. Three this weekend alone. What we’ve learned is that we stick with each other. We do that better than a lot of other teams,” White said. “That definitely gives us an edge because, no matter what happens, we know we have each other and we’ll keep fighting until the very end. We have a never give up mindset.”
The Trojans kicked off the second leg of the tournament with a 4-1 defeat of the Georgia State Panthers. Georgia State 5-foot-4-inch junior twins Angel and Bella Ferary ended the 10-0 undefeated record of one-seed tandem Kraft and Maple to earn the Panthers’ only dual point.
The Trojans’ commanding performance culminated with a 5-0 victory over the FIU Panthers. This was an improvement from their 3-2 win over the Panthers earlier this season, and their fifth clean sweep of the year.
“You want to learn from every experience,” Blanton said. “We learned from that [dual] and made some adjustments, and they made some lineup adjustments. We were still able to take care of them.”
Senior twins Audrey and Nicole Nourse scored the opening dual point at the No. 2 position, placing them at third in USC’s history with 76 match wins as a pair. Kraft and Maple made their resurgence as a duo when they dominated in straight-sets 21-12, 21-10.
As the Trojans advanced to 20-1 all-time in duals played at Manhattan Beach, the emotion, focus and power of Shields and White attracted the most intrigue from the crowd. The duo showed perfection under pressure with a 4-0 weekend record, three three-set victories and their 12th win together.
“Our energy and intensity completely drive us to succeed and play our best. When we’re at our loudest and most excited, we are dominating. That’s when we have the most fun, so it’s crucial to our playing style as a pair,” Shields said. “When we are dialed in on our side, we’re probably one of the toughest teams to beat and unstoppable … I’m proud of how we finished, and we finished strong.”
The 17-1 Trojans get back to killing it on the court Friday and Saturday at the Pac-12 North Invitational, where they will go head-to-head against Arizona State, Oregon, Arizona and Utah at Stanford’s Beach Volleyball Stadium and Sand Hill Volleyball Courts. USC’s duals with Arizona and Oregon will be streaming live on the Pac-12 Networks.