No. 20 USC Women's Volleyball Closes Regular Season with Huskies and Hawkeyes

LOS ANGELES – The 20th-ranked USC women's volleyball team (19-9, 11-7 Big Ten) closes the regular season this week with a quick trip to the Pacific Northwest to take on Washington (19-9, 9-9) on Wednesday and a home finale against Iowa (10-20, 4-14) on Friday. A pair of wins could move the Women of Troy into a fifth-place tie in the Big Ten standings, but a pair of losses could put the Trojans in a tie for ninth place. USC has won all but one match against former Pac-12 opponents and can stand atop the Pac with a victory over the Huskies. The Trojans and the Hawkeyes will meet for the first time as USC celebrates Senior Night. Both matches will be shown live on Big Ten Plus streams.

THIS WEEK
MATCH #29 • Wednesday, Nov. 27 • 4:30 p.m. PT
No. 20 USC (19-9, 11-7) at Washington (19-9, 9-9)
Alaska Airlines Arena • Seattle, Wash.
SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 46-33 (.582)
LAST MEETING: W 3-1 (Nov. 3, 2024 • Galen Center)
STREAK: Won 3 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 5-5
TV/STREAM: Big Ten Plus
OPPONENT WEBSITE: GoHuskies.com

MATCH #30 • Friday, Nov. 29 • 7 p.m. PT
SENIOR NIGHT 2024
No. 20 USC (19-9, 11-7) vs. Iowa (10-20, 4-14)
Galen Center • Los Angeles Calif.
SERIES RECORD: First meeting
TV/STREAM: Big Ten Plus
OPPONENT WEBSITE: HawkeyeSports.com

FIRST SERVE (TL;DR)

USC is led by fifth-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 82-56 (.594) as the Trojans' head coach.
The Trojans are 11-4 at home and are 215-60 (.782) all-time at Galen Center.
The Women of Troy are 42-36 all-time in the state of Washington.
Sr. S Mia Tuaniga has started as the Trojans' setter for each of the last three seasons and has 4,402 career assists to rank second in school history.
Gr. OH Ally Batenhorst ranks 10th in the Big Ten for kills (3.78 kps) and is seventh in the league for points (4.50 pps).
Redshirt Fr. MB Leah Ford leads USC (4th in the Big Ten) in hitting (.378) and ranks fourth in the league for blocks (1.37 bps).
Sr. MB Tyrah Ariail is 16th in the Big Ten in blocks (1.14 bps).
USC ranks third in the Big Ten (seventh in the NCAA) for blocks at 2.86 bps and has reached double-digit blocks in 18 matches this season.

LAST TIME OUT: USC split road matches in its second trip to the Midwest in as many weeks. The Trojans claimed a four-set win over Northwestern and held leads as large as five points in all three sets of a 3-0 loss to eighth-ranked Purdue. Adonia Faumuina posted a career-high 20 kills in the win over the Wildcats while Mia Tuaniga moved ever closer to the USC career record for assists with 48 against NU and 42 against the Boilermakers. Ally Batenhorst was steady with her 26th and 27th matches in double-digit points and Gala Trubint tallied double-digit digs for the 66th time in her career with 21 against Purdue; a match in which she had 11 digs in the second set alone.

LEVEL UP: On Monday (Nov. 25) OH Ally Batenhorst and S Mia Tuaniga were each chosen in the second-annual Pro Volleyball Federation collegiate draft. Batenhorst was taken with the seventh pick of the second round (15th overall) by the Omaha Supernovas. Tuaniga was selected by the Atlanta Vibe with the third pick of the fourth round (27th overall). Last year, OPP Kalyah Williams was taken the fifth pick of the fifth round (33rd overall) by the Orlando Valkyries, a franchise coached by former USC associate head coach Amy Pauly. The Valkyries roster this season also features USC All-American OPP and AU Pro Champion Brittany Abercrombie and former libero Shannon Scully.

PAC LEADER: Each of the four former Pac-12 teams in the Big Ten were scheduled to face the other three twice; once at home and once on the road. Entering the final week of the regular season, USC leads the pack with a 4-1 mark against the other teams. Oregon is 3-2 and UCLA is 2-3. Washington holds a 1-4 mark against its former Pac-12 neighbors. The Trojans meet the Huskies on the road and the Ducks visit the Bruins to complete the round robin in the final week of play.

B1G AND SMALL: Only three Big Ten teams hold winning records against the Trojans. Wisconsin has the best win percentage of the three with a 6-3 mark against USC. Illinois is 4-3 and Penn State is 3-2 against the Women of Troy.

DAWG WALKERS: USC leads Washington 46-33 all-time but has had little luck when it has played the Huskies in Seattle. The Trojans are 18-20 as the road team and are just 4-15 since 2005 when the Huskies won the NCAA championship. After winning eight straight road matches over UW between 1996-2004, USC has won just four times (2011, '18, '19, '23) in 19 matches at Hec Ed. At home, the Trojans are a far more palatable 26-12 against Washington.

EVERGREEN GENE: The Trojans are 42-36 all-time in the state of Washington. Since 2014, when USC played three in Seattle and one in Pullman, the Women of Troy are 8-12 in 20 matches in the Evergreen State.

AVCA POLL POSITION: The Trojans opened the 2024 season ranked No. 21 in the AVCA coaches' poll. Overall, USC has appeared in the coaches' poll 540 times, which ranks sixth all-time. The Women of Troy have held a spot among the poll's top 10 teams 317 times, which ranks eighth all-time, and the Trojans have held the No. 1 ranking 47 times for seventh all-time. Since 1982—the year of the poll's inception—USC has appeared in the final poll 34 of 41 times with 18 finishes in the top 10; 12 in the top five, and twice as the No. 1-ranked team (2002, '03).

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Players Mentioned

Tyrah Ariail

Ally Batenhorst

Adonia Faumuina

Leah Ford

Gala Trubint

Mia Tuaniga

Kalyah Williams