USC Women's Volleyball Falls to Rainbow Wahine in Hard-Fought Five-Setter

Thursday, August 31

Honolulu, Hawaii

10:00 PM

USC

1-3,0-0Pac-12

Hawai'i

3-1,0-0Big West

Southern California

Hawaii

Photo by: Jenny Chuang

USC Women's Volleyball Falls to Rainbow Wahine in Hard-Fought Five-Setter

September 01, 2023 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Highlights

Senior OH Skylar Fields took a career-high 80 swings and led the Trojans with 26 kills against Hawai’i

HONOLULU – The USC women's volleyball team (1-3) pushed for five sets but had a comeback bid fall short to Hawai'i (3-1), 19-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-17, 17-15, at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Thursday, Aug. 31.

KEY PLAYERS

Sr. OH Skylar Fields led all players with a season-high 26 kills (14e, .150) gathered on a career-high 80 attacks and added a season-best seven blocks with four digs. Her 29.5 point set a new career mark by half a point.
Jr. setter Mia Tuaniga posted her first double-double of the season (16th of her career) with 47 assists and a career-high tying 14 digs. She also added two blocks and a kill.
Sr. MB Lindsey Miller set new career marks with 16.0 points and 11 blocks (one solo). She hit .429 to get her 10 kills (1e, 21att) and recorded her first-career double-double. She also matched her career high with four digs.
So. LIB Gala Trubint led the Trojans with a season-high 21 digs and set a new career high with eight assists. It was Trubint's 28th-career match in double-digit digs and her eighth time over the 20-dig mark.
Gr. OH Kalyah Williams tallied eight kills to go with six digs, two blocks, and a pair of service aces.
In just four sets of action, Fr. OPP Madison Pietsch had a coming-out party to get her first collegiate kill and then went on to finish with eight kills (2e, .273) on 22 swings. She also had three digs.
So. DS Megan Verbiest set a new career high with 13 digs and Gr. DS Ellie Snook reached double-digit digs with 12.
For Hawai'i, Amber Igiede led with 16 kills (5e, 30att, .367) and had seven digs and eight blocks (one solo). Riley Wagoner had 12 kills and 13 digs for the double-double. Caylen Alexander added 13 kills with nine digs and three blocks and did some damage from the service line with five of the Wahine's 10 service aces. Setter Kate Lang posted 44 assists with nine digs, two blocks, and three service aces.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Trojans out-hit the Wahine .193 to .161 in the match and had the edge in kills (61-53), assists (59-49), and blocks (12-11). Hawai'i had more digs, 87-82, but won the serve-and-pass game with a 29-11 edge in points won from the service line. UH finished with 10 aces and just seven service errors while the Trojans gave up 19 points on serve errors.
Alexander had three of her service aces in the opening frame and the Wahine hit .235 en route to a 25-19 win in the first set. USC was held to a .108 hitting percentage with Fields picking up just three kills on .000 hitting. Trubint had seven digs.
The score was tied eight times and the lead changed five times before the dust settled on a 25-22 second-set win for the Wahine. The Trojans erased an early four-point deficit (10-6) and used an 8-2 burst to claim a three-point lead at 17-14. Hawai'i stayed the course and used a 7-2 run of its own to wrap up the 25-22 comeback win. The Women of Troy got five kills from Fields and hit .098 in the second set, which still outpaced the Wahine's negative .034 hitting.
USC fell into a quick five-point hole in the third, 12-7, but never gave up to force set four with a 26-24 win. Hawai'i stepped in front, 20-16, but USC scored on seven of the next 10 rallies to go in front, 23-22. Despite staring a sweep in the face with UH at match point, Fields got her ninth kill of the set and then Emily Fitzner served an ace as part of a 3-0 run as USC closed out the win. The Trojans hit .261 with 17 kills (5e) on 46 attacks and UH had 13 kills to hit .133.
The teams went back and forth early in set four, but USC went ahead by five points at 13-8 to put UH on its heels. Fields added six more kills and helped USC hit .344 while Verbiest had eight of her digs to help the Trojans roll away with a 25-17 win and force set five. USC had three more blocks to hold UH to .100 hitting (12k, 8e) on 40 swings.
The fifth set had eight ties and four lead changes, but the Wahine closed out the victory in extra points, 17-15. The Trojans led by two at 13-11 and grabbed match point at 14-13, but UH fought back and got the final kill of the match from Alexander. USC had 11 kills, two blocks, and a service ace to earn 14 of its 17 fifth-set points.

UP NEXT

The Women of Troy stay on the islands with a day between matches and meet Hawai'i in the 'Hana Hou' matchup on Saturday evening (Sept. 2) at 7 p.m. HT (10 p.m. PT). That contest will be shown locally on the OC16/Spectrum Sports channel and is available to stream on ESPN+.

MATCH NOTES

USC fell to 20-25 against Hawai'i in the 45th meeting of the Trojans and Wahine. The Women of Troy also go to 15-14 against UH when the teams play in Honolulu.
The Trojans fall to 24-15 in all matches played in the state of Hawai'i.
In five-set matches with the Wahine, USC fell to 5-5 overall but have lost each of the last three times it has gone five with Hawai'i, including once in 2022 in Honolulu. Prior to that, the Wahine went five sets to knock USC out of the first round of the 2016 NCAA tournament in Minneapolis.
USC played its first five-set match of the season and goes to 146-104 in 250 all-time five-set matches. The Trojans are now 64-51 when they play five-set matches as the visiting team.
Two different Trojans registered double-doubles in the same match for the first time this season; the first time since Nov. 25, 2022, when Skylar Fields and Adonia Faumuina each had double-doubles against UCLA.
Lindsey Miller's career-high 11 blocks (one solo) marked the first time a Trojan logged double-digit blocks since 2019 when Jasmine Gross (twice), Raquel Lázaro, and Madison Horin each registered 11-block totals in individual matches.
The Trojans and the Wahine played on Hawaiian Heritage Night at Stan Sheriff Center. All public address announcements were made in both English and native Hawaiian.

For more information on the USC women's volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/WVB. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCWomensVolley on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.