USC Digs Out a Win, Reaches Final

Two years ago at the NCAA women’s volleyball semifinals, USC dug itself a hole and could never get out of it. With their championship dreams on the line Thursday night, the Trojans were in a similar spot against Florida.

The result couldn’t have been more different. USC shook off its initial deficit and advanced to its first national title match in 20 years with a 24-30, 30-25, 30-26, 30-24 victory over the Gators at New Orleans Arena.

The victory set up a grudge match with Stanford on Saturday. The Cardinal advanced with a relatively easy 30-25, 30-27, 30-24 victory over Hawaii.

“We all get pumped up to play Stanford,” said junior April Ross. “Just the fact that it’s the championship match. I don’t think we can think that there’s a more exciting match to play.”

The Trojans (30-1) haven’t played in a final since 1982 when they lost to Hawaii. They can thank a deep and talented lineup getting there this time.

Sophomore Keao Burdine had a team-leading 16 kills, and three others totaled at least nine over the four games.

But it was what USC did defensively that changed the tone of the match. After Florida jumped to a 10-3 lead and essentially wrapped up the first game, the Trojans made some adjustments, particularly at the net.

Middle blocker Emily Adams and outside hitter Lauren Killian began to shut off the hitting lanes for Florida. The Trojans totaled 24 blocks in all, with Adams and Killian each getting eight.

“Blocking against a team like this definitely gets you fired up,” said Adams, an All-American for the first time. “Once we started getting a lot more in and getting a lot of touches off the hits, we just got into our rhythm.”

The Trojans’ height at the net provided a problem for the Gators (34-3) as the match wore on. Florida committed 17 of its season-high 44 hitting errors in the final game, mostly in trying to hit away from the blocks with cross-court kills that went wide.

“Everywhere I was hitting, there were two blockers,” said Florida’s Aury Cruz, who had 19 kills but also 12 errors.

USC was also strong on the back row as defensive specialist Nicole Davis and setter Tracy Lindquist continually kept balls alive.

“We took some really good swings that came back at us,” Florida Coach Mary Wise said.