USC Women's Volleyball Closes Regular Season with Buffaloes

LOS ANGELES – The USC women's volleyball team (5-8, 5-8 Pac-12) concludes its regular-season schedule with a pair of matches at home against Colorado (8-10, 8-10) this weekend. The Trojans and the Buffaloes will meet at Galen Center on Thursday (April 1) at 6 p.m. PT and again on Saturday (April 3) at 1 p.m.

MATCH #15 • Thursday, April 1 • 6 p.m. PT
MATCH #16 • Saturday, April 3 • 1 p.m. PT
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.

USC (5-8, 5-8 Pac-12) vs. Colorado (8-10, 8-10 Pac-12)
SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 18-1 (.947)
LAST MEETING: W 3-1 (Oct. 9, 2019 • Galen Center)
STREAK: Won 4 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 9-1
TV/STREAM: USC Live Stream (Mark Beltran)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: CUBuffs.com

FIRST SERVE

The Women of Troy are under the direction of first-year head coach Brad Keller who previously served as an assistant coach for the Men of Troy.
Sr. OH Brooke Botkin and Jr. S Raquel Lázaro were each chosen to the Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference Team.
The Trojans will play only their fourth and fifth home matches this weekend. They are 169-45 at Galen Center (.790) since the arena opened in 2006.
USC was picked to finish fifth in a preseason poll of the league's coaches.
The Trojans have played in six five-set matches this season (2-4). Including 2019, USC has played 17 five-setters over the last two seasons.
Five different Women of Troy have recorded at least one double-double in their careers led by Lázaro's 37 and Botkin's 26.
USC has had seven matches canceled this season for various reasons. From the Pac-12, only Stanford has had more matches canceled (12).

Due to forced cancellations, the Women of Troy have played the vast majority of their spring schedule on the road and will only be playing their fourth and fifth home matches when they take the floor this week. Despite its record, USC has held its own against the Pac-12's top teams. Half of the Trojans' losses have come in five-set matches against Utah, Oregon, and Washington.

USC has played six five-set matches this spring and has won each of its last two by going the distance. Trojan senior OH Brooke Botkin posted her 26th-career double-double (16 kills, 10 digs) in a road win at Arizona. And junior setter Raquel Lázaro leads all players with 37-career double-doubles. Junior OH Brooklyn Schirmer has emerged as a reliable scorer at the pins.

LAST TIME OUT: USC battled Arizona for a five-set win on the road last Friday, but had a Sunday matchup canceled because the Trojans were unable to field enough players to compete in the match. In Friday's win, USC used a gritty 10-1 run to win the second set and then controlled the tempo for the third set. Despite Arizona's momentum-building set-four win, USC hung tough and gutted out a 15-13 win in the fifth thanks to double-double performances from OH Brooke Botkin and OH Brooklyn Schirmer and the setting of graduate Sarah Nelson who put up 39 assists and 13 digs for her first double-double as a Trojan.

PAC-12 POW(ER)S: USC players have received Pac-12 Player of the Week honors 79 times (third most). Sr. OH Brooke Botkin received her second-career award this spring on March 23. Since 2011, when the Pac-12 began honoring separate offensive and defensive players of the week and introduced a freshman award, Trojans have earned 22 offensive awards, 11 defensive awards, and 19 freshman honors. Trojans Samantha Bricio(9), Natalie Hagglund (5), Asia Kaczor (5), and Jennifer Kessy (5) have had the most individual career selections.

LONG DISTANCE: The Trojans have played five sets six times (2-4) this season. In 2019, USC played five a school-record 11 times and went 4-7 in those contests. Previously, USC played nine five-set matches in a season three times (1980, 2007, 2010). In each of those seasons, the Trojans went 8-1 in five-setters. The Women of Troy are 142-94 all-time in five-set matches: 56-34 at home; 63-47 on the road; and 23-13 in neutral locations.

DOUBLE DOWN: Six current Trojans have recorded career double-doubles. Junior setter Raquel Lázaro has logged 37 double-doubles (5 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, Sept. 7, 2019). Senior OH Brooke Botkin has 26-career double-double matches (8 in 2020-21). Sophomore OH Kalen Owes has recorded three-career double-doubles and sophomore OPP Emilia Weske has had two-career double-double matches (one this season). Junior OH Brooklyn Schirmer joined the club this spring and now has two-career double-doubles. In a start at Arizona, graduate setter Sarah Nelson recorded her first double-double as a member of the Women of Troy.

HOME, SWEET HOME: USC is 169-45 (.790) all-time at Galen Center. The Trojans went 12-1 in home matches in 2011 and completed the 2012 home schedule with a 17-1 mark. In 2007, USC was 19-0 at home on the way to an appearance in the NCAA national semifinal match. The Trojans are 20-4 all-time at Galen Center in NCAA tournament matches. The four losses were to Hawai'i (2008 and 2009) and San Diego (2018) each time in the second round; and to Washington in the 2013 NCAA Regional Final.

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Players Mentioned

Brooke Botkin

Raquel Lázaro

Sarah Nelson

Kalen Owes

Brooklyn Schirmer

Emilia Weske