Two Bay Dates Ahead For Women of Troy

LOS ANGELES – The USC women's volleyball team (14-10, 8-6 Pac-12) heads up the interstate for a pair of Bay Area Pac-12 battles this weekend. The Women of Troy take on No. 4 Stanford (18-4, 12-2) on Friday and then face No. 20 California (20-4, 10-4) on Sunday. USC has recently split matches on its annual Bay Area trip and last earned a sweep of the Cardinal and Bears in 2013. With only six regular-season matches remaining on the schedule, the Trojans look to settle in and make a strong run ahead of the postseason, but will have to find harmony on short order. Because of injuries, USC has had to use 17 different starting lineups throughout the season.

MATCH #25 • Friday, Nov. 15 • 6 p.m. PT
USC (14-10, 8-6) at No. 4 Stanford (18-4, 12-2)
Maples Pavilion • Stanford, Calif.
SERIES RECORD: USC trails, 26-66-1 (.280) • LAST 10: 1-9
LAST MEETING: L, 2-3 (Oct. 27, 2019 • Galen Center)
WATCH: Pac-12 LA (Kevin Danna & Don Shaw)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: GoStanford.com

MATCH #26 • Sunday, Nov. 17 • 12 p.m. PT
USC (14-10, 8-6) at No. 20 California (20-4, 10-4)
Haas Pavilion • Berkeley, Calif.
SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 61-12 (.836) • LAST 10: 9-1
LAST MEETING: W, 3-1 (Oct. 25, 2019 • Galen Center)
WATCH: Pac-12 LA (Kate Scott & Holly McPeak)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: CalBears.com

FIRST SERVE

Second-year USC head coach Brent Crouch is 36-21 at Troy (91-87 career).
USC has employed 17 different starting lineups through 24 matches.
The Trojans play five of their final six regular-season matches in the state of California. USC's only remaining out-of-state match is at ASU (Nov. 27).
The Women of Troy are currently tied for sixth in the Pac-12 standings but are only two matches out of second place where there is a four-team tie.
USC is 41-46 all-time in the Bay Area (25-7 in Berkeley; 8-38 in Stanford; 8-1 in other cities). The Trojans are 6-4 in their last 10 matches north and last earned a sweep of Stanford and Cal in 2013.
Sr. OH Khalia Lanier has reached double-digit kills in all 20 matches she has played in; including 10 times over 20 kills. She has the 17th most kills by a player in Pac-12 history (1,880).
Lanier was chosen for her fifth Pac-12 Player of the Week award on Nov. 11 (USC's 78th all-time) and was named the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week the following day (Nov. 12).
So. S Raquel Lázaro is the only Trojan to have played all 100 sets this season. She leads the Pac-12 with 16 double-double matches (28 career).

BUT FIRST, LET ME TAKE A #SELFIE: Get social with the Women of Troy! Fans can follow and interact with the USC women's volleyball team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram by searching for @USCWomensVolley.

TROJAN BRIEF CASE: USC is loaded at the pins and is led by All-American outside hitter Khalia Lanier (5.07 kps). Before suffering a leg injury, All-American OH Brooke Botkin was scoring at a 2.90 kps clip. The Trojan hitters receive sets from the 2018 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Raquel Lázaro (10.91 aps). All four of USC's top attackers return from last season. In the middle, senior Jasmine Gross (2.07 kps, .392) returns. Among newcomers, USC welcomes MB Madison Horin (0.70 kps, 0.90 bps), OH Kalen Owes (2.18 kps), and OPP Emilia Weske (2.07 kps) as part of a heralded freshman class. Defensively, the Trojans have employed several different liberi this season including Jenna Adams (2.63 dps) who returns this season after sitting out 2018 due to injury and Raegan LeGrand (2.73 dps) who has started 13 matches this season. The Trojans have been hit hard by injuries to key players at various stages of the season and have had to field 17 different starting lineups in their 24 matches.

LAST TIME OUT: The Women of Troy had match-point opportunities against the 16th-ranked Utes, but fell in an 18-16 fifth-set result despite a history-making match by Khalia Lanier who produced 40 kills in the loss. It was the first 40-kill performance by a Pac-12 player in the 25-point rally-scoring era. Raquel Lázaro set a new career mark with 64 assists and racked up another double-double. The Trojans bounced back to defeat Colorado in four sets behind another remarkable performance from Lanier who tallied 33 kills in a shorter match and hit north of .400 while doing so. USC's five-set loss to Utah was the team's sixth in eight five-set matches this season.

HISTORY MAKER: Sr. OH Khalia Lanier logged the first-ever 40-kill performance by a Pac-12 player in the 25-point rally-scoring era when she put up 40 in five sets against Utah (Nov. 7). It and her 42.5 points rank second all-time at USC in a single match. The 40 kills are the fifth highest by any Pac-12 player in league history and the highest since Asia Kaczor set the Pac-12 record with 45 against Washington on Nov. 16, 2007. In the biggest of footnotes, Lanier followed up that performance with 33 kills while hitting .452 (5e, 62att) against Colorado two nights later. It was her third 30-plus kills outing in USC's last four matches and added another tie to the 10th-highest single-match total at USC.

NATIONALLY NOTABLE: Following a week in which she had 73 kills to average 8.11 kills per set while hitting .417, Khalia Lanier was named the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week for the second time in her career (Nov. 14, 2017). Her choice was the third for a Pac-12 player this season and is the 11th time a Trojan player has been selected. Lanier joins USC greats Samantha Bricio (2012, 2015) and Alex Jupiter (twice in 2010) as the only Women of Troy to be named the national player of the week twice in their careers.

TOUGH SLEDDING: The Trojans played one of the toughest non-conference slates in the country in 2019. USC was one of 10 teams that began the season with back-to-back contests against teams that finished in the top 25 of the NCAA's final 2018 ratings percentage index (RPI). The Trojans were one of only three programs that tackled five straight teams that finished 2018 in the top 25. The other two programs were Texas and Creighton. Among the ranked opponents, USC met No. 3 Texas and No. 22 Texas State on opening weekend and then have No. 8 Kentucky, No. 13 Creighton, No. 16 Northern Iowa this week. USC itself was No. 9 in the final published RPI.

AVCA POLL POSITION: The Trojans opened 2019 ranked No. 14, but fell out of the poll on Sept. 30. It was USC's first time unranked in the poll since the 2017 preseason poll. That year, USC finished at No. 7 following a run to the NCAA's regional championship match. Overall, the Trojans have appeared in the poll 517 times, which ranks third all-time. USC has held a spot among the poll's top 10 teams 316 times, which ranks eighth all-time. The Trojans have also held the No. 1 ranking 47 times previously, which is sixth all-time.

PAC-12 POW(ER)S: USC players have received Pac-12 Player of the Week honors 78 times (third most among league teams). Since 2011, when the Pac-12 began honoring separate offensive and defensive players of the week and named a freshman of the week, Trojans have earned 21 offensive awards, 11 defensive awards, and taken home 19 freshman honors. On Sept. 16, Sr. MB Jasmine Gross was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career and OH Kalen Owes was chosen for Freshman of the Week honors. Khalia Lanier was was chosen on back-to-back weekends (Nov. 4, Nov. 11) for her fourth- and fifth-career selections. Only Trojans Samantha Bricio (9), Natalie Hagglund (5), Asia Kaczor (5), and Jennifer Kessy (5) have had as many career selections.

DOUBLE DOWN: Six Women of Troy on this year's squad have recorded career double-doubles. Senior OH Khalia Lanier leads all players with 39-career double-doubles. Junior OH Brooke Botkin has 17-career double-double matches. Sophomore setter Raquel Lázaro has logged 28 double-doubles (16 this season) and is the owner of the first and only USC triple-double in the rally scoring era (36 assists, 16 digs, 11 blocks at Northern Iowa). Senior OPP Emily Baptista has three as a Trojan and 11-career double-doubles. Senior MB Jasmine Gross has had four. Freshman OH Kalen Owes posted her first-career double-double (18 kills, 15 digs) against Creighton on Sept. 7, and is already up to three-career double-doubles. Freshman OPP Emilia Weske picked up her first-career double-double on Oct. 18 at Oregon State.

Players Mentioned

Jenna Adams

Emily Baptista

Brooke Botkin

Jasmine Gross

Madison Horin

Khalia Lanier

Raegan LeGrand

Kalen Owes

Emilia Weske