Women of Troy win last home game of the season


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The USC women’s sand volleyball team’s No. 1 pair of junior Kirby Burnham and graduate student Stevi Robinson beat the USA junior beach national team duo of Courtney Trevino and USC alum Geena Urango on Saturday in a hotly contested match to win an exhibition tournament between the two teams.

Tune-up · Freshman Sydney Seau and junior Sam Hirschmann (above) were both participants in the exhibition tournament over the weekend, as the team now prepares for the national championship in Gulf Shores, Ala. - William Ehart | Daily Trojan

Tune-up · Freshman Sydney Seau and junior Sam Hirschmann (above) were both participants in the exhibition tournament over the weekend, as the team now prepares for the national championship in Gulf Shores, Ala. – William Ehart | Daily Trojan

 

It was the last home match of the season for the Women of Troy at the brand-new Merle Norman Stadium, where they went 7-3 this year.

“We’ve loved the home-court advantage this year,” USC head coach Anna Collier said. “Hopefully, this stadium will be the host of the national championship in years to come.”

The USA squad got some retribution in the third-place match, as USA’s Jane Chafeh and Heather Hughes defeated the No. 2 USC pair of senior Katie Fuller and freshman Cinnamon Sary in straight sets 21-19, 21-17.

And in a battle of USC teams, the No. 4 duo of sophomore Kati Duddridge and junior Brooke Fournier defeated USC sophomore Eve Ettinger and freshman Christine Irvin 21-18, 24-26, 15-11 to capture fifth place.

This exhibition match was the Women of Troy’s final tune-up before the team travels to the American Volleyball Coaches Association collegiate sand volleyball national championship next weekend in Gulf Shores, Ala.

“This was good for our team of more beach-style players, because pairs on the junior national team were similar to a North Florida or a Louisiana-Monroe team that we might meet that have that a scrappy, little beach game,” Collier said. “Now, hopefully, we won’t be caught off guard by these teams’ style of play.”

In the exhibition, the pairs of Burnham-Robinson, Chafeh-Hughes and Trevino-Urango each went 3-0 in order to advance to their respective matches. Urango, who played on USC’s indoor team from 2007-10, was the first scholarship recipient of the Women of Troy’s sand volleyball program in its 2012 debut season. She was part of USC’s No. 1 pairs team, which made it to the AVCA collegiate sand volleyball championship pairs quarterfinals.

Fuller and Sary, along with Duddridge and Fournier, both went 2-1 to finish second in their pools to advance to their final matches. Ettinger would do so as well, while mixing partners between Irvin and sophomore Bria Russ.

The winners of the exhibition tournament, Burnham and Robinson, will look to translate their winning play to next weekend, when they play in the 16-team pairs championship in Gulf Shores, Ala.

“Right now, we are primarily going in focusing on the team playing against North Florida in the opening match, so we will worry about ours when the time comes,” Robinson said.

The Women of Troy (14-6) will be the fourth-seeded team in the upcoming national championship that runs from May 3-5. USC will open up against North Florida on May 3 at 7 a.m, and the winner of that match will take on top-ranked and top-seeded Pepperdine at noon on the same day.