Women’s Beach Volleyball | March 11, 2023
LOS ANGELES – The second-ranked USC beach volleyball team (8-0) earned a pair of victories on the first day of the Battle for Los Angeles at Merle Norman Stadium on Saturday, March 11. The Women of Troy defeated 16th-ranked Long Beach State (2-7) by a 4-1 count and then got their first clean sweep of the season with a 5-0 win over Concordia (5-8) to remain undefeated and extend their win streak to 44 consecutive duals dating back to March 5, 2022.
The Trojans also improved to 80-11 all-time at Merle Norman Stadium and have won 15 straight home duals. USC improved to 14-5 all-time against Long Beach State and has won 13 straight duals over The Beach. The Trojans and the Eagles met for just the third time and for the first time since 2015 as USC improved to 3-0 in the all-time series.
At the top court, juniors Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple went 2-0 to improve to 8-0 on the season (9-0 lifetime). The defending Pac-12 Pair of the Week didn’t drop a set with wins over Sydney Stevens and Julia Westby of Long Beach State (21-17, 21-19) and Olivia Highstreet and Hannah Phair of Concordia (21-14, 21-10).
Seniors Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse collected a pair of straight-set wins with a 21-14, 21-19 win over LBSU’s Christine Deroos and Mari Molina; and a 21-14, 21-10 win over Kelia Giusta and Hailee Ryan of Concordia to improve to 6-2 on the season. It was the 68th all-time victory for the twin sisters, now alone in third place in program history for most wins by a pair.
At the No. 3 position, graduate Madison Shields and freshman Madison White completed a 2-0 day with a 21-18, 23-21 win over Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah of Long Beach State and a 21-17, 21-14 win over Concordia’s Sara Ostojic and Tatum Smith. The Maddy duo improved to 4-4 on the season and snapped a streak of four straight losses.
On four, junior Olivia Bakos and freshman Gabby Walker also went 2-0 with a 24-22, 22-20 win over Emily Mattoon and Megan Widener of Long Beach State and 21-9, 21-15 over Kelissa Lemoine and Eva Prewitt of Concordia. Bakos-Walker goes to 3-1 on the season.
The Trojans’ No. 5 pair of freshman Delaney Karl and graduate Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope reunited after three duals apart and played 119 rallies in a narrow loss to Natalie…
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