USC Sweeps Florida to Reach Region Final

Freshman April Ross had a match-high 19 kills as the USC women’s volleyball team swept Florida, 15-13, 15-13, 15-11, in an NCAA Pacific Region semifinal in front of 1,286 at the Sports Arena on Thursday night.

The Trojans (28-2) advance to today’s regional final against Penn State, which was a 9-15, 15-11, 15-12, 15-7 winner over Colorado State in the first semifinal. Today’s match will begin at 4:30.

“It’s the NCAA tournament and people are just not going to give you the match,” USC interim Coach Jerritt Elliott said. “Florida fought hard. They played really consistent and aggressive. The key for us is that we need to continue to be aggressive past 14 points.”

USC took a 12-4 lead in Game 1 and had to hold off a late Gator rally.

Jennifer Pahl had 14 kills and a .379 hitting percentage for the Trojans and senior Janae Henry had 10 kills for a .381 hitting percentage.

Aury Cruz led Florida (29-5) with 17 kills, but only hit .094 on 53 attempts.

Tied at 3-3 in the third game, USC scored four consecutive points only to see Florida score three in a row to keep it close. Leading 9-8, USC scored five of the next six points and won the match when freshman Toni Anderson set one into the open court.

UC Santa Barbara d. Minnesota, 15-12, 7-15, 15-7, 15-10--Daniell Bauer had 23 kills, Simone Kuhn added 20 and setter Brooke Rundle had 66 assists as the Gauchos advanced to the West Regional final at Honolulu.

Santa Barbara (26-7) will play the winner of Thursday night’s late match between Long Beach State and Hawaii. The final will be played tonight at 9 PDT.

Lindsey Berg and Nicole Branagh each had 23 kills to pace Minnesota (30-4).

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NCAA Women’s Volleyball

NCAA DIVISION I REGIONALS

All Times PST

TODAY

* Pacific final: Penn St. (30-5) vs. USC (28-2) at Sports Arena, 4:30 p.m.

* West final: UC Santa Barbara (26-7) vs. Long Beach St. (24-7) or Hawaii (29-1) at Honolulu, 9 p.m.

* Mideast semifinals: at Madison, Wis., Pacific (28-3) vs. UCLA (24-7), 3 p.m.; Kansas St. (23-8) vs. Wisconsin (30-3), 5 p.m.

* Central semifinals: at Lincoln, Neb., Arizona (27-4) vs. BYU (26-6), 3 p.m.; Nebraska (30-0) vs. Ohio St. (26-6)., 5 p.m.

SATURDAY

* Mideast final at Madison, Wis., 5 p.m.

* Central final at Lincoln, Neb., 5 p.m.