Great news for the Ladies Volleyball squad!

USC outside hitter Alex Jupiter (Paris, France/Redondo Union HS) earned the 2011 Honda Sports Award for women's volleyball and will be eligible to win the Honda Cup, which is awarded to the nation's collegiate woman athlete of the year.

She earned the honor after a nationwide ballot was sent to more than 1,000 NCAA member institutions. The winner of the Honda-Broderick Cup will be announced June 22-23, 2012, in Los Angeles. The American Honda Motor Co., Inc., will donate $5,000 to USC's women's athletic program.

Jupiter finished the season with 514 kills (4.47 kps) and a .265 hitting percentage. She had 13 assists (0.11 aps), 57 service aces (0.50 saps), 360 digs (3.13 dps), 63 blocks (0.55 bps) and 619.5 points (5.39 pps). She helped USC finish with a 29-5 overall mark and back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances, the first time USC had accomplished that since 2004.

Even though the ladies fell short, they were fun to follow this season.

Congrats Alex!

FIGHT ON!

Disappointing loss in the semi-finals last night for the ladies volleyball team.

That is the second year in a row that the ladies have fallen in the semi's...

Senior outside hitter Colleen Ward had 27 kills and Illinois advanced to its first championship match in school history, upsetting USC in five sets in the NCAA semifinals Thursday night.

The Illini (32-4) will face UCLA in Saturday's championship after the Bruins swept Florida State in the other semifinal.

Michelle Bartsch added 22 kills for the Illini in the 25-27, 25-18, 25-22, 18-25, 15-10 win. Alex Jupiter had 32 kills for USC (29-5).

By looking at the score, it seemed to be a pretty brutal match.

Here is a little more from the USC Athletic site...

Senior All-American Alex Jupiter, who had only seven kills through the first two sets, recorded 23 kills in the third and fourth sets to finish with 32 kills. Jupiter missed her career best of 33, set last weekend in the regional semifinal at Hawai'i. Senior All-America setter Kendall Bateman finished with a season-high 65 assists to go with 13 digs and tying her season best with four blocks for USC (29-5).

Senior All-American middle blocker Lauren Williams (Houston, Texas) was one off her career best with 18 kills while hitting .448 for the Women of Troy. Sophomore All-American libero Natalie Hagglund finished her season with 31 digs, two of her career high. Katie Fuller chipped in 11 kills while Sara Shaw added eight kills and 18 digs, one of her career high.

Tough way to go out for the seniors.

Here is the post game presser...

Next year Ladies...

FIGHT ON!

This was a tough loss for the men last night...

Santa Barbara won a hard-fought match, 20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 16-14, to earn its fifth Final Four appearance. Tenth-ranked Penn State (24-6) and No. 9 Ohio State (24-6) also qualified Saturday for the Final Four, scheduled this Thursday and Saturday at State College, Pa., and USC (23-3) is expected to receive an at-large bid.

The Gauchos (17-14) won the MPSF tournament title for the first time and are seeking their first NCAA title. They have been NCAA runners-up four times, most recently in 1988.

The Trojans, who have been ranked No. 1 all season, had a five-match winning streak snapped. Their six-match win streak against UC Santa Barbara also ended.

Maybe this loss will make them very hungry as they go into the Final Four.

FIGHT ON!

This was a big match last night and USC prevailed....

In a matchup of the nation's top-ranked men's college volleyball teams, No. 1 USC defeated No. 2 UC Irvine on Thursday night in a semifinal of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament at the Galen Center.

The Trojans (23-2) won, 3-1 (25-19, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23), and advanced to face No. 5 UC Santa Barbara in the MPSF final at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Galen Center.

The winner of that final will earn an automatic berth to the NCAA Final Four next week at Penn State University. The Final Four matches will be held May 5 and 7.

'SC has some unfinished business to attend to after falling short last year in the Final Four.

I think they are right on track!

FIGHT ON!

After upsetting Stanford in Elite Eight USC is now in Kansas City getting ready for the Women's Volleyball Final Four.

There might be snow on the ground outside the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., but warm sand is never far from the thoughts of Kendall Bateman.

But first things first for Bateman and USC: the hardcourt in the NCAA Final Four that opens this evening, with the Trojans taking on Pac-10 rival California in the semifinals.

Bateman, a 5-foot-11 setter, is a junior for the Trojans, who might be overachieving with a young squad that relies heavily on three freshmen and a sophomore.

They might be getting their baptism by fire, but that's been ingrained in Bateman since her days of growing up in Manhattan Beach and then playing for Mira Costa High.

 

Ah...the days of playing beach volleyball when I was kid growing up!

I am hoping the Matches will be on TV or replayed for viewing.

Good Luck Ladies!!

FIGHT ON!

This is a guest column per Alejandro Madrid of Fansided.com's USC blog Reign of Troy. Madrid will also serve as the USC women's volleyball beat writer for the Daily Trojan this fall.

Why you should care: The Women of Troy represent the Cardinal and Gold well. Coach Mick Haley runs a terrific program. At Galen Center, the games are always full of energy, impressive digs, and powerful spikes. When you watch volleyball at this level, the precision of the outside hitters and the quality of play is astounding. Most importantly, everybody loves to watch their team win, and USC is good at that.

How to follow along: As with every sport, the best way to keep pace is to attend the games in person. Season tickets run about $75 per person. The Women of Troy, who play in the beautiful Galen Center, begin their home schedule on August 27 against Loyola Marymount at 7:30 PM in the Luxe City Center Trojan Invitiational. For those unable to make it to the action, be sure to check out the game stories in the Daily Trojan-USC's student newspaper. Furthermore, three marquee home matches can be seen on Fox Sports Net: Friday (Sept.) versus UCLA, Friday (Oct. 22) versus Oregon and Saturday (Oct. 30) versus Washington.

Some things you need to know:

A) USC was picked to finish second in the Pac-10.

USC finished second in the Pac-10 coaches poll behind defending champion Stanford. The Women of Troy received two of the ten first-place votes and finished a single point behind the Cardinal. The Pac-10 is the tradition power in women's volleyball. At the end of 2009, seven of the teams were ranked in the top 25. USC's selection at number two speaks volumes about the talent and expecations for this squad.

B) MaxPreps ranked USC's 2010 recruiting class number one.

Through tireless recruiting, Haley was able to sign the number one recruiting class in the country according to Max Preps. As USC looks to replace three starters, including two-time All-Pac-10 player Jessica Gysin, the newcomers will be in the mix.  Outside hitter Falyn Fonoimoana has been tabbed as the top high school player in the country for 2009 and has a thorough understanding of the nuances of the game. At libero, incoming freshman Natalie Hagglund will push senior Geena Urango in what should be the fiercest position battle of preseason practice. Other freshman that could see plenty playing time include middle blocker Alexis Olgard, opposite Sara Shaw, and outside hitter Sam Hirschmann-who is coming off of a phenomenal season of club volleyball.

C) Alex Jupiter was an All-American last year

Jupiter is the star of the team. As an outside hitter, the junior racked up most of the points a year ago. Although she isn't a captain, Jupiter figures to be the focal point of the offense again as she continues to climb up the ranks of the USC record books. However, with more players with the ability to score, the offensive burden won't fall solely on Jupiter, and opponents won't be able to focus their defensive efforts on her-something that Haley acknowledges hampered USC last season. "We need to have point production from Alex but it can't be all on Alex this year. Now we can spread the ball around a little bit more and maybe make her more effective. "

D)Success at Galen

For stat junkies out there, USC is 52-7 (.881) all-time in the Galen Center. Something about hearing the Spirit of Troy and playing in front of the home crowd seems to make the Trojans click.  In a recent interview, Coach Haley eluded to the fact he likes the home court advantage and hopes to draw large crowds for some of the bigger matches. If USC can manage the road schedule and continue the success at home, their record will live up to expectations.

Likelihood of Success: High. In the 2009 NCAA tournament, the Women of Troy got an unfortunate draw when they had to play Hawaii in the second round. Although Hawaii was a twelve seed, they made it to the Final Four. Heading into the 2010 campaign, tenth year coach Mick Haley believes this year's women's volleyball squad has the potential to be among the nation's elite and build on last season's efforts. "With the addition of our recruiting class, we should be a much better team-more experienced, deeper in talent. If everybody works hard and things goes the way we plan, we are going to be able to compete for a national title." The Trojans have made 19 straight consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. For them, it's not a question of making the playoffs. The real focus is on how long the ride will last.

The USC women's volleyball team didn't have its best of years in 2009, finishing with double-digit losses and losing to Hawai'i in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last December. Regardless, it appears as if the program will be making some television appearances in the Fall, according to USCTrojans.com:

The Pac-10 Conference announced that three USC women's volleyball home matches for the 2010 season will be broadcast on FOX Sports Net. The three matches are: Friday (Sept. 24) against UCLA, Friday (Oct. 22) against Oregon and Saturday (Oct. 30) against Washington.

The remaining home matches will be broadcast live on usctrojans.com with a multi-camera video webcast, viewable with a paid subscription.

I know we often don't post stuff about non-revenue sports, but once I move back to campus in mid-August, I'm hoping to keep everybody a little more up-to-date on sports other than football and basketball. 

And for those not living in Los Angeles and Southern California near campus, this will be one of the few opportunities, you'll have to catch a USC game not taking place in the Coliseum or with Kevin O'Neill screaming from the bench.

In case you were wondering, yes, the NCAA sanctions do require us fans to watch at least three non-revenue sports games per year so we better get crackin'.

Both teams were pretty evenly matched last night. USC was getting the ball to Murphy Troy and Tony Ciarelli for the kills while UCI was getting blocks from Ammerman and Simmons and kills from Wilson. Both coaches pretty much had their game plans in place.

That set things up to be a tough match for both teams going all five games.

UC Irvine wanted to prove that the NCAA volleyball title it won two years ago was no fluke.

The Anteaters dispelled that notion Saturday by winning again, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to beat USC, 3-2, in the NCAA men's title match.

"That was an epic battle," UC Irvine Coach John Speraw said. "I think people could be talking about that match for a very, very long time."

Taylor Wilson had 21 kills, Ryan Ammerman finished with 55 assists and Jordan DuFault had 14 kills, including the final one to give UC Irvine a 15-12 win in the fifth game.

The Anteaters were in the volleyball Final Four for the third time in four years and added to the title they won in 2007.

Unfortunately for USC UCI was just too tough for SC to handle with their blocks and Tony Ciarelli seemed more interested in talking smack to some of the UCI fans. Three things stood out to me that contributed to USC's loss...USC also had way too many service errors many more than UCI. USC had more unforced errors than UCI and an offshoot of that were the many over passes SC committed that UCI was able to kill.

The announcers wanted to make a big deal out of altitude in regards to the service errors...I'm not buying it both teams made their fair share, SC just made more. SC is a young team with only one senior so they have some growing to do...especially Ciarelli. I have no idea what he was thinking after a solid match against PSU he let the UCI fans get in his head. They were getting the ball to him but he was not hitting the kills at the rate that SC needed him to.

When it was clear that SC was going to lose game 4 Coach Bill Ferguson pulled both troy and Ciarelli for a spell get the ready for game 5. Ferguson used this same tactic against Pepperdine last week and it worked then but Ciarelli just couldn't shake his funk last night.

The player that really showed his stuff was Riley McIbbin with 71 assists.

So, we look forward to next year and hope that USC builds from here...

FIGHT ON!