Trojan Women Meet Their Match in Volleyball Ouster

Speed was the card played so well by the USC women’s volleyball team.

Quick attacks on offense and its scrambling ability on defense made 29 opponents fold. But in its first NCAA final four appearance in 15 years, the Trojans didn’t count on Wisconsin playing that same card along with another fatal one.

Power.

Behind hitters Sherisa Livingston and Jenny Maastricht, the Badgers always had the better hand, beating USC into submission in a convincing 15-10, 15-9, 15-9 victory Thursday in the national semifinals before 7,783 at Richmond Coliseum.

It was a shocking end to a season of restored prominence for USC (29-3) as little seemed to go right.

The Trojans had their second-lowest hitting percentage of the season, connecting on .147 percent with 32 errors. They also committed 14 serving errors. Also, Wisconsin (33-3) had a 23-12 blocking advantage.

“This is never easy to be in this position,” USC Coach Jerritt Elliott said. “I have to tip my hat to Wisconsin, which executed very well today.

“It was different. We weren’t able to pass the ball as well as we would have liked. Our defense wasn’t as crisp as it was in the past.”

Livingston and Maastricht had a lot to do with that. Livingston, a junior middle blocker from Simi Valley Royal High, had match highs of 21 kills and six blocks. Maastricht had 20 kills--10 of them in the second game--and four blocks.

Setter Lizzy Fitzgerald simply got them the ball.

“It definitely takes a lot of pressure off you when they’re going so well,” said Fitzgerald, who had 46 assists. “They were on fire. It’s so much fun as a setter to just put the up in the air and let them go after it.”

Livingston put three consecutive kills away to pull out the first game for Wisconsin. The Badgers dominated after that, taking 10-2 and 11-1 leads in the final two games.

“They played a good match,” USC junior Jennifer Pahl said. “They were going over us a lot on the block, but we could’ve been more disciplined.”

Janae Henry had 15 kills to lead the Trojans. April Ross added 13, but none of the leading hitters came close to their season percentage as they either found Badgers waiting in position at their angles or sent balls out of bounds trying to compensate for that.

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Nebraska put itself in position to win its first title since 1995 by defeating Hawaii (31-2), 15-3, 15-12, 9-15, 15-10, in the other semifinal. The top-seeded Cornhuskers (33-0) can become the second NCAA champion to go through a season undefeated if they defeat Wisconsin on Saturday.

Long Beach State was the other in 1998.

Jenny Kropp had 16 kills and Laura Pilakowski added 11 for Nebraska.

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NCAA WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

* Where: At Richmond Coliseum, Richmond, Va.

* Saturday’s championship: Top-seeded Nebraska (33-0) vs. fourth-seeded Wisconsin (33-3)

* TV: ESPN2, 12:30 p.m. PST