USC continues streak with tournament sweep

The No. 7 USC women’s volleyball team remains undefeated after a dominating performance at the Fresno State Invitational.

The Women of Troy started the weekend with a victory over Fresno State on Friday night in straight sets (25-14, 25-16, 25-21) behind junior outside hitter Alex Jupiter’s 14 kills. They then swept Cal State Bakersfield Saturday morning (25-10, 25-20, 25-21) and finished the night with a victory over Sacramento State (25-13, 25-16, 25-22).

Freshman outside hitter Falyn Fonoimoana stood out in this weekend’s matches, racking up 32 total kills in the tournament, including 14 against Cal State Bakersfield. She had 10 kills and 11 digs against Sacramento State, marking her first collegiate double-double.

“I think the connection between [junior setter] Kendall [Bateman] and the connection with everyone on the court was just great,” Fonoimoana said.

After missing a few practices early in the season, Fonoimoana has worked hard to become a big contributor to the team.

“I just had to put myself in overdrive because I really needed to catch up to my team and make sure that I made them better because if I held myself back, it’s holding them back,” Fonoimoana said. “And that’s really the last thing I really wanted for my team.”

Fonoimoana was not the only player with impressive stats this weekend. Kendall Bateman recorded 102 assists, including 39 against Sacramento State. In that same match, sophomore outside hitter/opposite Katie Fuller had 10 kills, and freshman middle blocker Alexis Olgard recorded eight kills.

“I thought we had good intensity,” said USC coach Mick Haley regarding the team’s performance against Sacramento State. “I thought we had a good effort … and that’s what we needed to have to get ready to get into the next game.”

Haley was particularly impressed with his team’s serving. The Women of Troy had 11 service aces Friday against Fresno State, and early in the first game against Cal State Bakersfield USC scored 10 straight points on the serve of sophomore defensive specialist Erin Yoder, which  allowed USC to build a 15-2 lead.

“We kicked up the velocity a bunch. We didn’t have a lot of errors. Our ace-to-error ratio was really good, and now it’s just a matter of [whether] can we serve a little bit more accurately with this kind of velocity,” Haley said.

After the impressive start against Cal State Bakersfield, the match appeared to get more suspenseful, as USC gave up 20 and 21 points in the final two games. Haley assured, however, that the score was a bit misleading.

“I played a lot of players, and we made some errors that helped the opponent before they had that many points,” Haley said. “We were in full control all three of those games.”

Fonoimoana seemed positive about the defense as well. Although she acknowledged it as an area the Women of Troy continuously need to focus on, she made sure to stress the team’s improvement.

“The more and more we saw our block come together, the more and more it was easier for the defense to talk and get balls,” Fonoimoana said. “It’s a lot easier to see things that we didn’t see before.”