USC Women's Volleyball Takes on Mountains at Home

LOS ANGELES – The USC women's volleyball team (8-4, 2-0 Pac-12) seeks to extend on a season-long seven-match win streak when the Trojans and Galen Center host Utah (6-6, 1-1) and Colorado (9-4, 1-1) in a pair of Pac-12 contests this weekend. The Women of Troy and the Utes will meet on Friday night (Sept. 29) at 7 p.m. PT in a match scheduled to be shown on Pac-12 Mountain. On Sunday (Oct. 1), the Trojans and the Buffaloes clash in a 1 p.m. matinee match-up which will be streamed on the USC Live Stream platform. The win streak the Trojans are on matches the longest under head coach Brad Keller. Last year, USC won seven in a row between Sept. 30 and Oct. 21. Coincidentally, that win streak began with a pair of four-set home victories over the Buffs and the Utes.

MATCH #13 • Friday, Sept. 29 • 7 p.m. PT
USC (8-4, 2-0) vs. Utah (6-6, 1-1)
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 19-11 (.633)
LAST MEETING: L 3-0 (Oct. 28, 2022 • Salt Lake City, Utah)
STREAK: Lost 1 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 2-8
TV: Pac-12 Mountain (Anne Marie Anderson)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: UtahUtes.com

MATCH #14 • Sunday, Oct. 1 • 1 p.m. PT
USC (8-4, 2-0) vs. Colorado (9-4, 1-1)
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 22-3 (.880)
LAST MEETING: L 3-1 (Oct. 30, 2022 • Boulder, Colo.)
STREAK: Lost 1 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 8-2
LIVE STREAM: USC Live Stream (Victoria Dennis)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: CUBuffs.com

FIRST SERVE (TL;DR)

USC is led by fourth-year head coach Brad Keller who has the unique experience of having coached both men's and women's programs at both USC and UCLA. Overall, Keller is 52-38 (.578) as the Trojans' head coach.
The Trojans are on a seven-match win streak, which equals the longest under head coach Brad Keller (Sept. 30-Oct. 21, 2022).
USC is 197-54 (.785) all-time at Galen Center. The Trojans are 4-0 this season and have dropped just one set on their home floor.
The Trojans hit .478 in a 3-0 win over Oregon State. It was the highest hitting output under Keller and the best single-match performance since 2015.
Sr. OH Skylar Fields has reached double-digit kills in 11 matches. She was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week (Sept. 11) for the fifth time in her career and leads the Pac-12 in kills (5.16 kps) and points (5.64 pps).
Fr. OH London Wijay was chosen as the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week two weeks in a row (Sept. 18, 25) and averages 3.04 kille per set.

LAST TIME OUT: USC opened its Pac-12 schedule with a road match at crosstown rival UCLA and prevailed in a hard-fought five-setter. The win was the Trojans' fourth in a row over the Bruins and pushed USC's all-time record in conference openers to 35-13. London Wijay posted her second of back-to-back double-doubles and led the Trojans with 24 kills and 10 digs. Skylar Fields added 18 kills and Emily Fitzner put up 46 assists and 12 digs for her seventh-career double-double. USC then swept Oregon State at home to move to 2-0 in league matches and extended the Trojan win streak to seven matches behind another 18-kill performance from Fields, who hit .581. USC hit .478 against the Beavers to log the highest single-match rating under Brad Keller and the Trojans' best hitting match since 2015. Kalyah Williams added 11 kills on .562 hitting while Wijay racked up nine kills with a .571 attack percentage.

TIME TO PAC IT UP: The Women of Troy will be playing their final season in the Pac-12 Conference. On June 30, 2022, USC and UCLA both announced that the schools' athletic programs would join the Big Ten Conference in 2024. Since that time, Oregon and Washington also made similar announcements and all four teams will now compete in the Big Ten for most sports.

BUFFALOES WOES: The Trojans are 22-3 all-time against Colorado. USC won its first 14 matches with the Buffaloes but had that streak snapped in a 3-0 loss in Boulder in 2017. The Trojans regained control of the series with seven straight victories but dropped only the second match to CU—again in Boulder—to split the 2021 season series with the Buffs. Colorado has never won at Galen Center in 13 visits.

FEELING SALTY: While USC leads its all-time series with Utah by a 19-11 margin, the Utes won seven consecutive matches between 2018-21 and had won eight of 10 meetings until USC broke the streak on Oct. 2, 2022. Prior to 2018, USC was 16-2 against the Utes. The Trojans are 8-6 against Utah in Salt Lake City and 7-5 in Los Angeles.

PINK GAME: The USC-Colorado match on Sunday (Oct. 1) is the Trojans' designated Pink Game. The first 300 fans in attendance will receive a special promotional pair of pink socks. During the month of October, Trojan teams and teams across the country will don pink uniforms and wear pink accessories to raise awareness for breast cancer research.

PAC-12 POW(ER)S: USC players have received Pac-12 Player of the Week honors 87 times (fourth all-time). OH Skylar Fields was named Offensive Player of the Week (Sept. 11) for her fifth-career Pac-12 weekly award. She was chosen for the same honor four times in 2022 and is one of just five Trojans ever win the honor five times in their careers. OH London Wijay earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Week laurels on Sept. 18 and repeated a week later on Sept. 25. Since 2011, when the Pac-12 began honoring separate offensive and defensive players of the week and introduced a freshman award, Trojans have earned 28offensive awards, 13 defensive awards, and 23 freshman honors. Trojans Samantha Bricio (9), Natalie Hagglund (5), Asia Kaczor (5), Jennifer Kessy (5), and Fields (5) have had the most individual career selections.

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Players Mentioned

Skylar Fields

Emily Fitzner

London Wijay

Kalyah Williams