Skylar Fields poised for run to become NCAA kills leader as USC opens NCAA play

Consider these numbers: 

USC has 1,613 kills this season. 

Skylar Fields has 586 of them. 

Her next closest teammate, Tyrah Ariail, has 210. 

Fields led the Pac-12 in kills with 66 more than Arizona State’s Marta Levinka.

For that matter, only Giula Cardona of Evansville (593) and Kayley Cassaday of Tulsa (592) have more kills. Evansville is done for the season, while Tulsa is in the NIVC and plays Kansas City on Thursday. It will be quite a race between Cassaday and Fields to become the 2023 NCAA kills leader.

USC (18-12), which finished alone in fifth in the Pac-12, opens NCAA Tournament play Friday against America East-champion UMBC in Pittsburgh. The winner most likely plays top-seeded Pitt, the ACC champion that plays MEAC-champion Coppin State, on Saturday.

The focus, then, for UMBC and, presumably Pitt, will be Fields. And not only is she used to that, the 6-foot-2 fifth-year senior outside hitter from Missouri City, Texas, is not afraid of the spotlight.

That was one reason why, after three seasons, she transferred from Texas to USC.

Fields was a Texas kid through and through. She was a prep All-American at Ridge Point High School southwest of Houston. She played for Houston Juniors on a team that included Pepperdine’s Isabel Zelaya, the West Coast Conference setter of the year; outside hitter Sanaa Dotson, who played at Oklahoma and LSU; LSU middle Anita Anwusi; libero Sabrina Sustala, who played at Texas A&M and TCU; outside Kennedy Prince, who played at Miami (FL); and McNeese libero Bailey Tillman.

“We had a pretty good team,” Fields said with a laugh.

Fields played right side as a freshman at Texas, and then for part of the next season, before moving to outside.

Fields acknowledged that as a freshman, she wasn’t going to get time at outside, not with Texas boasting Micaya White as a fifth-year senior and future national player of the year Logan Eggleston as a sophomore.

“I was…