Trojans Pursue Perfect Ending

If you believe most experts in women’s college volleyball, today’s NCAA championship match at Reunion Arena in Dallas will simply be a coronation for defending champion USC.

Florida middle blocker Sherri Williams isn’t ready to fall in line.

“We can’t be fearful at all,” Williams said. “They are a very good team, but so are we. There is a reason why we are here.”

Florida has many good reasons to be in its first national championship match. After starting the season with a loss, the Gators have won 36 consecutive matches. They beat Hawaii in four tight games in Thursday’s national semifinal.

Then there is the rebuttal. That one loss was to USC, a team being mentioned as one of the best of all time.

“The good thing is it’s not a best-of-seven series,” Florida Coach Mary Wise said. “It’s a one-shot deal. We’ve seen it time and time again in the world of sports. David vs. Goliath.”

USC (34-0), which beat Minnesota in the semifinal round, is trying to become the third team to go undefeated in the 22 years that the NCAA has sponsored women’s volleyball.

In August, the Trojans defeated Florida, 31-29, 30-17, 30-25, in the State Farm Classic in Honolulu. USC has been a season-long target for Wise and her team.

“We started preparing way back in January in terms of, if we were going to be able to compete against a team like USC, what we would have to do, where do we have to get better,” she said. “That was certainly our mantra all spring in the individual sessions and the team sessions.”

Senior outside hitter Aury Cruz leads the Gators. Cruz, a three-time All-American, had 19 kills against Hawaii.

“We have a lot of respect for Florida,” USC Coach Mick Haley said. “We think they’re a very, very good team, certainly very athletic.”

Even though the Trojans only lost captain Lauren Killian to graduation off last year’s team, middle blocker Katie Olsovsky said they needed that opening match against the Gators to find out about themselves.

“We were still hesitant to see how well we’d come back even though we won the championship,” Olsovsky said. “The Florida match was a battle between teams that had nothing to lose at the beginning of the season.”

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NCAA Volleyball Championship

* Who: No. 1-seeded USC (34-0) vs. No. 3 Florida (36-1).

* When: Today, 12:30 p.m.

* Where: Reunion Arena, Dallas.

* TV: ESPN2.

* How they got there: In the semifinals Thursday, USC beat Minnesota, 3-0, and Florida beat Hawaii, 3-1.

* NCAA record: Defending champion USC has won a record 46 consecutive matches, breaking Penn State’s 1990 record of 45 last weekend with a 3-1 win over No. 8 UCLA in the quarterfinals.

* Only loss to USC: Florida lost to USC, 3-0, in its season-opening match Aug. 22 in Honolulu.