Adding Ross Was Big Plus for Trojans

April Ross couldn’t have been a bigger recruit coming out of high school.

As arguably the nation’s top prep volleyball player, Ross grabbed her share of honors, the most noteworthy being selected Gatorade National Player of the Year.

USC Coach Jerritt Elliott was putting together a good freshman class that would lay the foundation for the next few years.

But Ross, from Newport Harbor High, was the prize catch, and getting her could turn the Trojans into a national title contender.

“It was huge to get her,” Elliott said recently. “Most of the top teams went after her. To be honest, I thought she was leaning toward UCLA all along.”

The Trojans won that battle. With Ross, they’ve won all but two matches this season. With two more victories, the Trojans can call themselves NCAA champions.

Ross has helped lead the USC women into their first Final Four in 15 years. On Thursday, the Trojans take a 29-2 record into the national semifinals, where they will play Wisconsin.

The Final Four is a big step for the program. USC has been in the tournament the past 10 years but reached the regional final only once, in 1994.

But the Trojans have taken that step with the presence of the 6-foot-1 outside hitter. Ross had 19 kills in a three-game sweep of Penn State in the regional final Friday at the Sports Arena.

A year ago at this time, Ross had finished leading Newport Harbor High to the state Division I championship.

“[All the success] has come kind of quickly,” Ross said. “I personally didn’t expect it to come this soon.”

Ordinarily, a freshman would have to bide her time for a year or two, learn the college game and then start to make her mark.

Ross, 18, is no ordinary freshman. Even in college, the honors keep rolling in.

She made the All-Pacific 10 Conference first team and was an All-Pacific Region selection, as well as the first Trojan to be selected national player of the week since Jasmina Marinkovic in 1997.

She leads the team in kills per game (3.68) and is second in total digs with 316. That is how much of an impact Ross has had.

“I think it’s pretty obvious what’s she done for our team,” senior outside hitter Janae Henry said. “She’s definitely had an impact, as have all the freshmen.

“April has been one of the starters since the beginning of the season and has rarely come out of a match. She’s been phenomenal.”

The transition from high school to college hasn’t always been smooth for Ross. It only seems that way.

She has played some of her best volleyball in the Trojans’ biggest matches. In a four-game home win over UCLA, Ross had a career-high 25 kills and a .352 hitting percentage. Against Arizona--another four-game home victory for USC--she had 20 kills and only three hitting errors for a .425 percentage.

But it isn’t necessarily the offense Ross provides that impresses Elliott.

“She’s added so much to our team,” he said. “She’s allowed us to run our set because she can play all three [front-line] positions.

“When I recruited her, I could see that she was very calm and composed for a high school player. She can pass the ball. She can play either left, middle or right side, which makes it possible to run a double-set offense.”

For Ross, the toughest moment of the past year may have been choosing USC or UCLA. Stanford, a perennial power, was also in the running, but Ross said the decision came down to the two cross-town schools.

Though two of Ross’ relatives attended UCLA, she said that didn’t affect her choice.

“It wasn’t really me choosing USC at the last minute,” she said. “I think everyone kind of saw me as a UCLA-type of player, and so they expected me to go there. Whenever I saw some coaches or players [that I knew], they would say, ‘I can just picture you going to UCLA.’

“When I visited USC, I just felt like I was at home.”

Ross knew how important her decision was. The school she picked could see its fortunes improve dramatically.

“I definitely struggled with it,” she said. “I knew [freshman] Katie Olsovsky was kind of in the same position as me. We talked about it and we kind of decided that we’d like to go to the same school.”

Henry was thrilled when hearing that Ross had committed, along with Olsovsky and setter Toni Anderson, another high school All-American.

“I thought it was awesome,” she said. “Obviously, we had some good players and we did pretty well, but we didn’t have the depth like this year.”

Having those players meant USC could set higher goals. One was winning the conference title, which the Trojans shared with Arizona. Making the NCAA Final Four was another, and that has been accomplished.

Now they think they can win it all. Even if the Trojans don’t do it this year, they figure to be in contention as long as Ross is there.

“They’re going to be so good, it’s going to be scary,” Henry said.

NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championships

At Richmond Coliseum, Richmond, Va.

THURSDAY’S

SEMIFINALS

* Top-seeded Nebraska (32-0) vs. third-seeded Hawaii (31-1), 3 p.m.

* Second-seeded USC (29-2) vs. fourth-seeded Wisconsin (32-3), 5:30

SATURDAY’S

CHAMPIONSHIP

* Nebraska-Hawaii winner vs. USC-Wisconsin winner, 12:30 p.m.

NOTE: ESPN2 will televise championship match live. The USC-Wisconsin match will be aired Friday, delayed at 10 a.m.