USC Beach Volleyball Pairs Earn Top 10 Finishes at AVCA National Championships

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – USC beach volleyball's pair of freshman Ashley Pater (Bradenton, Fla.) and graduate Ainsley Radell (Moraga, Calif.) took sixth place; and graduate duo Maddi Kriz (Austin, Texas) and Grace Seits (Ramona, Calif.) finished tied for seventh in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championships presented by the United States Marine Corps at the John Hunt Park Complex on Sunday, Nov. 5.

Each of USC's pairs went 3-0 in pool play and advanced to the quarterfinal of the 32-team championship bracket. Seeded ninth, Pater-Radell defeated pairs from Cal Poly, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and Tennessee Martin. As the 10th seed, Kriz and Seits earned wins over duos from California, Tulane, and UC Davis.

In elimination play, each Trojan pair went three sets in all matches. Pater-Radell got an 18-21, 21-16, 15-9 win over Cal Poly's Izzy Martinez and Piper Naess; and then took out Florida State's duo of Maddie Anderson and Skyler Germann, 16-21, 21-19, 15-13, to move into the round of 16. There, Pater-Radell fell to the eventual runner-up pair of Xolani Hodel and Brooke Rockwell from Stanford, 21-13, 18-21, 15-13.

Kriz-Seits took out California's pair of Gia Fisher and Maya Gessner, 18-21, 21-19, 15-8, in the round of 32 and then claimed a 13-21, 22-20, 15-11 win over the fifth-seeded team of Courtney Moon and Marketa Svozilova from Florida Atlantic. In the round of 16, Kriz and Seits went three sets with the fourth-seeded UCLA pair of Devon Newberry and Jaden Whitmarsh, but fell, 14-21, 21-14, 23-21, in extra points.

Following elimination from the championship bracket, Kriz and Seits fell to Florida International's Giada Bianchi and Alicia Pratesi in the fifth-place bracket. Pater-Radell took out their Florida State counterpart but fell to Bianchi and Pratesi in the fifth-place match.

Under fifth-year head coach Dain Blanton, the USC beach volleyball team captured its third straight NCAA Championship (fifth NCAA title and sixth national title) in 2023. The Women of Troy finished the year ranked No. 1 and had an overall record of 32-5. USC added two more AVCA All-Americans to its history books with the third selection for Megan Kraft and the first-career honor for Delaynie Maple. Kraft was named the Pac-12's Player of the Year while she and Maple earned Pac-12 Pair of the Year laurels. Both were named to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team and were joined by Madison Shields and Madison White. Blanton finished his fourth season with a 105-15 career record and Gustavo Rocha was chosen as the AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year.

For more information on the USC beach volleyball team, a complete schedule, and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/beach. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow the team on Instagram and on X @USCBeach.

Players Mentioned

Megan Kraft

Delaynie Maple

Madison White