Women of Troy face a tough 49ers squad


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With the amount of success the No. 4 USC women’s sand volleyball team has had this season, it’s hard to believe this is only its second year of competitive collegiate play. The program still has that new car smell, but even newer is the team’s Merle Norman Stadium, which opened this season. Though the paint has just barely dried, the Women of Troy have already posted an impressive 7-3 record at home this season, with those three losses coming at the hands of No. 1 Long Beach State, No. 3 Florida State and Pepperdine. Now USC must take their show on the road to finish the regular season strong.

Though the Trojans have posted wins against some of the top teams in the nation, including No. 5 Hawai’i and No. 9  Nebraska, they have yet to defeat any of these top three teams in regular season play this year. However, they will get that chance in their next couple of matches.

After losing to defending champion Pepperdine 4-1 in USC’s last regular season home match, the team now has to go on the road and play No. 2 Long Beach State (6-1). USC will be looking to get revenge after the 49ers narrowly ousted the Trojans 3-2 at Merle Norman Stadium on Mar. 16. The match was the second half of a doubleheader for USC after defeating Loyola Marymount previously.

The loss to the 49ers really was as close as the score indicated, and the match was ultimately decided by only a few points. USC posted wins in the No. 2- and No. 3-ranked matches, while Long Beach State went on to win the No. 1- and No. 5-ranked matches. This left the No. 4-ranked match to decide the dual, where USC’s Brooke Fournier and Natasha Siljkovic fell to Long Beach State’s Lauren Minkel and Jocelyn Neely in the only 3-setter of the dual, 21-18, 20-22, 12-15.

“We’ve been coming really close in these big matches,” USC head coach Anna Collier said. “We lost to No. 2 Long Beach State and No. 3 Florida State, both in five sets, so we just have to lock down, take care of our side of the court and play every point like it’s our last.”

For Long Beach State, both their No. 4- and No. 5-ranked pairs remain unbeaten through seven matches. Minkel and Neely have made a team-high 195 combined digs while going 6-0 in the fourth slot, while Tyler Jackson and Janisa Johnson are hitting .471 with just 29 errors through six matches.

Long Beach State’s only loss this year came to top-ranked Pepperdine, who defeated the 49ers in the American Volleyball Coaches Association collegiate sand volleyball national championship last year.

“I hope we can use the Pepperdine match as a learning experience for this upcoming dual against Long Beach State,” Collier said. “We don’t want to have that same feeling of defeat that we had against Pepperdine.”

The Women Of Troy will also get another shot at the undefeated Waves, as they travel to Malibu to play them again on April 6.

However, the first order of the business for the team is today’s dual against Long Beach State, a team that USC is 1-2 against all-time, having split duals in 2012. First serve is set for 1 p.m.