No. 2 Trojans Venture Into Desert For ASU Invitational

LOS ANGELES – No. 2-ranked USC (13-2) remains on the road this week and heads to the Copper State for the ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. The Women of Troy take on host Arizona State (10-4) to open the tourney and then must face a pair of top-10 opponents in No. 5 Pepperdine (11-5) and No. 6 Hawai'i (10-4); each for the first time this season. The Trojans are on a three-match winning streak since suffering a 3-2 loss to No. 10 South Carolina on the East Coast.

2019 ASU INVITATIONAL
PERA Club • Tempe, Ariz.

MATCH #16 • Friday, March 22 • 12 p.m.
No. 2 USC (13-2) at Arizona State (10-4)
PERA Club • Tempe, Ariz.
SERIES HISTORY: USC leads, 10-0 (1.000) • STREAK: W10
LAST MEETING: W, 4-1 (Apr. 26, 2018 • Stanford, Calif.)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: TheSunDevils.com

MATCH #17 • Friday, March 22 • 2 p.m.
No. 2 USC (13-2) vs. No. 5 Pepperdine (11-5)
PERA Club • Tempe, Ariz.
SERIES HISTORY: USC trails, 12-11 (.478) • STREAK: W1
LAST MEETING: W, 3-2 (May 5, 2018 • Gulf Shores, Ala.)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: PepperdineWaves.com

MATCH #18 • Saturday, March 23 • 10 a.m.
No. 2 USC (13-2) vs. No. 6 Hawai'i (10-4)
PERA Club • Tempe, Ariz.
SERIES HISTORY: USC leads, 12-3 (.800) • STREAK: L2
LAST MEETING: L, 3-2 (Mar. 18, 2018 • Honolulu, Hawai'i)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: HawaiiAthletics.com

BARE E-SAND-SHELLS

USC owns three beach volleyball national championships including the first-ever NCAA title in 2016 (AVCA, 2015).
8th-year head coach Anna Collier is 186-34 (.890) and is the first and only collegiate head coach to reach 150 career victories.
The Trojans are 16-1 all-time in the state of Arizona and won three duals in Tucson earlier this season. USC's only loss in Arizona was to UCLA in the semifinals of the 2017 Pac-12 Championship.
AVCA All-Americans Abril Bustamante (Sr.) and Tina Graudina (So.) top the Trojans' lineup. The duo is 45-3 all-time together.
Individually, Bustamante is 102-23 and Sr. Terese Cannon is 101-24 all-time.
Bustamante and Graudina were named Pac-12 Pair of the Week (March 5). So. Haley Hallgren and Sr. Alexandra Poletto were chosen on March 12.
Each of USC's top three pairs are made up of a senior and a sophomore. All three pairs have won at least 25 matches together and rank among the program's top 20 all-time pairs for total victories.

SCOUTING REPORT: Arizona State (10-4) is 8-1 in its last nine duals. Each of the Sun Devils' losses has come to teams ranked in the top 15 including No. 1 UCLA. At the top court, Oluoma Okaro and Ashley Wenz are 9-0 and were named the Pac-12 Pair of the Week. The Trojans are 10-0 all-time against ASU. No. 5 Pepperdine (11-5) had a five-match winning streak snapped by top-ranked UCLA and suffered only its second 5-0 sweep in program history (both to the Bruins this season). USC dropped four straight regular-season duals to the Waves in 2018 but knocked Pepperdine out of the NCAA championship with a 3-2 win. The Trojans trail, 12-11, in the all-time series. No. 6 Hawai'i (10-4) has won six in a row since going 2-2 at the East Meets West Invitational. Three of the Wahine's four losses have been 3-2 decisions. Four different pairs have occupied the top court for Hawai'i, but the Wahine are solid at the No. 2 (11-3) and No. 3 (13-1) positions. The Trojans are 12-3 all-time against Hawai'i, but had an eight-match winning streak snapped last season and suffered two losses on the islands.

LAST TIME OUT: The Women of Troy went 3-1 on the East Coast where they played for the first time in the Peach State. USC had a nine-match winning streak snapped in a 3-2 upset to No. 10 South Carolina, but bounced back to get 4-1 wins over No. 18 Georgia State, No. 16 Florida Atlantic, and No. 8 Florida International. Seniors Abril Bustamante and Terese Cannon each surpassed the 100-career victory mark individually while Bustamante and sophomore partner Tina Graudina reached the 45-win plateau as a tandem to move into fifth all-time among USC pairs.

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 and Facebook.

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 186-34 (.890) all-time. The next closest coach was Pepperdine's Nina Matthies who reached 100 in 2017 and retired from coaching following the 2018 season with 137 career victories. The next nearest active coach to Collier is UCLA's Stein Metzger who started the season at 110-38 and is now 125-38 (.767).

CENTURY CITY: Seniors Abril Bustamante and Terese Cannon joined USC's 100-career win club during a trip to the East Coast (March 12-15). They are the seventh and eighth players to reach that career plateau with the Trojans. Bustamante is 102-23 and Cannon is 101-24 all-time. The six Trojans ahead of them are school-record holder Sara Hughes (190); Kelly Claes (180), Nicolette Martin (141), Allie Wheeler (130), Jenna Belton (124), and Jo Kremer (103).

PAIR'S LAIR: USC's pair of Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina has won 45 matches (45-3) and are fifth all-time among Trojan pairs. They need five more victories to become just the fifth pair to win 50 matches in school history. At the top of that list is Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes who won 147 matches.

NATIONAL RECOGNITION: Trojan pairs have twice been chosen for the AVCA/CollegeBeachVB.com National Pair of the Week award. Both times, senior Abril Bustamante and sophomore Tina Graudina were selected. Their first time was March 13, 2018; and more recently on March 12, 2019.

POW-WOW: USC pairs have won the Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Pair of the Week award 15 times since its inception in 2016. Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina won the program's first award of 2019 (March 5) and were followed by first-time winners Haley Hallgren and Alexandra Poletto (March 12). In 2018, Bustamante paired with Terese Cannon for one of two USC awards. She also won with a then-freshman Graudina. 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. Jenna Belton and Jo Kremer became the first-ever No. 5 pair to win the honor on March 21, 2017. USC's Nicolette Martin and Allie Wheeler have the great distinction of being the first-ever Pac-12 Pair of the Week honorees; chosen from the No. 3 position as juniors on March 8, 2016.

USC HOSTS 2019 PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP: The sand at Merle Norman Stadium will play host to the 2019 Pac-12 Championship from April 25-27. The Trojans also hosted the inaugural league tournament at the stadium in 2016 and won the first of its back-to-back conference crowns. Arizona hosted the 2017 tournament and Stanford played host to the tourney in 2018. For more information on the championship, please visit Pac-12.com/beach-volleyball.

USC Athletics