No. 4 USC Takes on No. 1 UCLA in Crosstown Showdown

LOS ANGELES –The 4th-ranked USC beach volleyball team (17-7) will face the No. 1-ranked team in the country for the second straight dual when the Women of Troy head to Sunset Canyon to face crosstown rival UCLA (24-3) on Wednesday (April 4) for a 3:30 p.m. PT start. The match will be shown live on Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Los Angeles.

Seniors Jenna Belton, Jo Kremer, and Terese Cannon lead USC's core group. Junior Abril Bustamante and sophomore Joy Dennis are the other returning starters from 2017. Belton and Kremer lead all Trojan pairs with 19 wins. Bustamante and freshman Tina Graudina have 16 victories; Cannon and freshman Sammy Slater have 14; and Dennis has teamed with freshman Haley Hallgren for 10 wins.

MATCH #25 • Wednesday, April 4 • 3:30 p.m. PT
No. 4 USC (17-7) at No. 1 UCLA (24-3)
Series History: USC leads, 9-2 (.818) • Streak: Won 1
Last Meeting: W, 3-2 (March 3, 2018 • Malibu, Calif.)
TV: Pac-12 N/LA (Kevin Barnett & Camryn Irwin)
Stream: Pac-12.com/live
Opponent Web: UCLABruins.com

BARE E-SAND-SHELLS

USC is the three-time defending national champion and won the first-ever NCAA title in the sport in 2016 (AVCA, 2015). The Trojans are also the two-time defending Pac-12 Champions.
7th-year head coach Anna Collier is 163-25 (.867) and is the first and only collegiate head coach to reach 150 career victories.
UCLA is the fourth team ever to hold the AVCA's No. 1 ranking and joins Hawai'i, Pepperdine, and USC.
USC will face the No. 1-ranked team in its second straight dual. The Trojans fell to No. 1 Pepperdine on Saturday (March 31).
Seniors Jenna Belton and Jo Kremer lead USC with 19 overall wins. They have 54 all-time wins as a pair, which ranks fourth in program history.
Only six teams have ever beaten the Trojans in a dual: Pepperdine (11), Long Beach State (5), Florida State (3), Hawai'i (3), UCLA (2), and LSU (1).

SCOUTING REPORT: No. 1 UCLA (24-3) comes into the week on a 19-match winning streak and becomes just the fourth team ever to hold the AVCA's No. 1 ranking (USC, Pepperdine, Hawai'i). When the teams meet, it will have been a month (March 3) since the Bruins lost back-to-back matches on Zuma Beach. That day, UCLA dropped a 3-2 decision to USC and suffered a 4-1 loss to Pepperdine. The Bruins defeated a then top-ranked Pepperdine last week and then went 5-0 at the Surf & Turf Invitational in Miami. UCLA's top pair of Megan and Nicole McNamara was named the National Pair of the Week and leads the Bruins with 22 wins at the No. 1 position. USC will make its first-ever visit to the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on UCLA's campus. Despite the first, the meeting will be the 12th between the Trojans and Bruins. USC leads, 9-2, but UCLA has won two of the last three meetings. Six of the last seven have been 3-2 decisions one way or the other.

TRACK THE TROJANS:Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCBeach on Twitter for score updates during home matches and select road matches. The Trojans are also active on Instagram, Facebook, Periscope, and Snapchat. Search @USCBeach and follow us today!

LAST TIME OUT: The Women of Troy went 2-1 at the Pepperdine Invitational on Zuma Beach in Malibu. USC earned a 5-0 sweep of No. 19 Saint Mary's College and then defeated No. 16 Loyola Marymount, 4-1. With no rest between duals, the Trojans suffered a 4-1 loss to top-ranked Pepperdine for the third straight time. USC previously lost to the Waves, 3-2, at home (Feb. 28) and at Zuma (March 3). At the top court, Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina went undefeated and pushed their overall season record to 16-1.

CLOSING TIME:Seniors Jenna Belton and Jo Kremer are 12 wins from catching USC's third all-time winningest pair of All-Americans Sophie Bukovec and Alexa Strange. Despite only being paired for two seasons, the duo has already amassed 54 victories together. Bukovec and Strange earned 66 wins together over a two-year span.

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS:On Saturday, April 23, 2016, USC defeated Hawai'i, 3-0, to make head coach Anna Collier the first collegiate beach volleyball coach to reach the 100 career victories mark. She is now 163-25 (.867) all-time. The next closest coach is Pepperdine's Nina Matthies who reached 100 in 2017.

POW-WOW:USC pairs have won the Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Pair of the Week award 13 times since its inception in 2016. Abril Bustamante and Terese Cannon claimed the first award of 2018 on Feb. 27. Bustamante was later named for the award with freshman Tina Graudina on March 27. In 2017, USC pairs claimed five of the eight awards. All-Americans Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes are owners of a record five Pac-12 POW awards. Seniors Jenna Belton and Jo Kremer became the first-ever No. 5 pair to win the honor on March 21, 2017.

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Players Mentioned

Jenna Belton

Abril Bustamante

Joy Dennis

Tina Graudina

Jo Kremer