SC Superstitions
USC's national champion beach volleyball and women's water polo teams share this season's superstitions.
5/24/2021
On May 9, 2021, USC beach volleyball beat UCLA to win its fourth national title. Exactly one week later, on May 16, USC women's water polo beat UCLA to win its seventh.
Both victories were the culmination of a season full of hard work. Another key to success, if you ask members of USC beach volleyball and women's water polo?
Following season-long superstitions.
Beach volleyball senior captain Joy Dennis had a strict routine on game days. She wore the same hair tie every match, and made sure to call her mom, Julie, before every match.
Dennis racked up a 25-3 record on Court 4 alongside her partner Delaynie Maple this season. Maple, a freshman, wore the exact same braided ponytail hairstyle during every match.
Sophomores Audrey (left) and Nicole (right) Nourse ate protein overnight oats with berries and granola before every game. The twins also did the same handshake before every game: two claps, two knuckles, two chest taps, raise the USC victory sign up in the air and then point to the sky. The Nourse twins went 27-4 on Court 5 this season.
Freshman Megan Kraft collected student-athlete wristbands from every away match and put them on her backpack's zipper for good luck all season long.
Once the beach volleyball team got to NCAAs, the women did a five-minute meditation before warmups every day, and made sure to sit in the same spots every time they did it.
Ultimately, USC beach volleyball beat UCLA 3-1 in the national championship to earn their fourth trophy.
USC women's water polo senior Maud Megens played Candy Crush on her phone on the bus ride to every game. She had to beat at least one level to feel confident heading into the game. Megens was named the MPSF Player of the Year after scoring 50 goals for the Trojans.
Senior Verica Bakoc (right) and junior Mireia Guiral (left) did a face mask together the night before the team played Stanford and since they won, they decided to do one together the night before every big game, including the national championship against UCLA.
Multiple members of the women's water polo team had a pair of lucky socks. Senior Denise Mammolito, who led the Trojans with 51 goals this year, wasn't wearing her lucky socks the day USC lost its only game of the season. She made sure to wear them all three days of the NCAA Tournament.
Grace Tehaney and Kelsey McIntosh also wore their lucky socks throughout the NCAA Tournament.
Water polo's footwear superstitions didn't end there. The team got new shoes when they made the NCAA Tournament and the women originally planned to wear them on the day of the championship, but senior Kari Jensen sent a text to the team group chat the night before encouraging everyone to wear the same white shoes they had been wearing, because she was superstitious about changing them.
The water polo coaches and staff had superstitions of their own.
Sports information director Darcy Couch used the same “lucky” pen and notepad all season long. She also donned special nail polish for the NCAA Finals.
The coaches ordered the same six coffee drinks each morning of the NCAA Tournament: two black coffees, two iced vanilla lattes and two hot vanilla lattes.
In the end, USC women's water polo topped UCLA, 18-9, in the national championship. It was the largest margin of victory ever recorded in women's water polo championship history and the most USC has ever scored against UCLA.
