USC Beach Volleyball Adds Quartet of Transfer Sand Trojans

LOS ANGELES – The three-time defending NCAA champion USC beach volleyball team has signed four graduate transfers set to join the Women of Troy for the 2024 season, head coach Dain Blanton announced on Friday, August 4.

The Trojans will welcome Grace Seits (Ramona, Calif./Ramona HS) from LSU, Maddi Kriz (Austin, Texas/Round Rock Westwood HS) from Stanford, Ainsley Radell (Moraga, Calif./Monte Vista HS) from California, and Emily Fitzner (San Diego, Calif./Torrey Pines HS) from Indiana.

"We're looking forward to the arrival of these four talented beach volleyball student-athletes," said Blanton. "It's no secret that USC is an incredible academic and athletic university and we've been fortunate to be able to attract some of the best graduate transfers in the nation to join our roster. Grace, Maddi, Ainsley, and Emily are proven athletes and will bolster the depth of our program. We're excited to get them on the sand and to see where they can help take our program this season."

Seits has won 60-career matches and was chosen to the CCSA All-Tournament Team in May after going 3-0 with partner Parker Bracken. She completed her season with a 26-10 mark—including a 21-9 record at the No. 2 position with Bracken—to follow a junior campaign in 2022 where she was 27-11 and earned AVCA Top Flight recognition with Kelli Greene-Agnew at the No. 4 position. Seits won seven matches in utility usage as a sophomore in 2021. She is a Southern California native and prepped at Ramona HS where she helped lead the Bulldogs to three consecutive league championships (2015-17) and was a two-time All-River Valley Team selection. Seits graduated from Louisiana State with a Bachelor of Kinesiology and is the second LSU player to transfer to USC following Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope (2023).

Kriz earned AVCA All-America second-team laurels as a senior at Stanford and completed her time on The Farm with 73 career victories. She was 24-15 as a senior—including 15-7 at the No. 1 position with Xolani Hodel—and was named to the All-Pac-12 first team. Kriz was second-team All-Pac-12 as a junior in 2022 when she went 22-11 with a 15-5 mark at the No. 2 position with Charlie Ekstrom. She is a two-time AVCA Top Flight honoree, once with Ekstrom and once with Hodel, and earned Pac-12 Pair of the Week honors once with each partner. Kriz went 21-15 in her sophomore year and was 6-7 in 2020 during the pandemic-shortened spring season. She is a three-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll choice (2021-23) and completed her degree in biochemistry and biophysics this spring. Kriz is the second Stanford player to transfer to USC following Sunny Villapando who played for the Trojans in 2022.

Radell was named to the Pac-12's All-Conference second team as a senior at California in 2023 and finished with a 29-8 overall record—including a 21-6 record at the No. 2 position with Ashley Delgado. Her 82-career victories rank second in Cal history and her .732 win percentage is third in the program's record books. Her 55 wins at the No. 2 spot are the most by any Golden Bear at that position. Radell was 19-9 as a sophomore in 2021 and went 9-1 in the pandemic-shortened spring of 2020. She is a three-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll recipient and a three-time Pac-12 All-Tournament Team choice. Radell received a degree in business administration from Cal this spring. She is the third player to join the Trojans from Cal following Caroline Schafer (2022) and Mary Buckingham (2014).

Fitzner played four years of indoor volleyball as a setter at Indiana and served as captain for Hoosiers in 2022. As a graduate transfer to USC, she will also play for the indoor volleyball team this fall. Fitzner appeared in 116 matches for the Hoosiers and completed her career at Indiana with 938 assists, 293 digs, and 49 service aces, and was an Academic All-Big Ten honoree. As a freshman in 2019, she played in 33 matches and started nine times. Fitzner was 13th in the Big Ten in assists and was third in the conference among freshmen setters with a 5.86 assists per set average. She was the first AVCA Under Armour All-American to play at Indiana and was a high school phenom guiding Torrey Pines to a 33-4 record in her senior year. She was a member of the USA Women's Junior A1 National Training Team and was ranked the No. 88 Senior Ace by PrepVolleyball.com. She joins a pair of TPHS graduates on the team: Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple.

Under fourth-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 Twitter @USCBeach.

Players Mentioned

Megan Kraft

Delaynie Maple

Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope

Caroline Schafer

Sunny Villapando

Madison White