No. 25 USC Women's Volleyball Hangs Four-Set Win on Hawkeyes

Friday, October 17

Iowa City, Iowa

4:00 p.m. PT / 6:00 p.m. CT

USC

12-5,3-4Big Ten

Iowa

10-9,1-6Big Ten

Southern California

Iowa

Photo by: Kim Ly

No. 25 USC Women's Volleyball Hangs Four-Set Win on Hawkeyes

October 17, 2025 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Highlights

Libero Taylor Deckert tallied 28 digs in a road victory over Iowa

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The 25th-ranked USC women's volleyball team (12-5, 3-4 Big Ten) defeated Iowa (10-9, 1-6) in four sets (25-20, 25-27, 25-23, 29-27) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Friday, Oct. 17.

KEY PLAYERS

Fr. LIB Taylor Deckert set a new career high with 28 digs and had five assists. It was the highest single-match dig output by a USC player since Kelli Barrylogged 30 in a match against UCLA (Nov. 25, 2022).
RS Jr. OH Adonia Faumuina led USC scoring with 16.0 points earned on 16 kills (2e, 40att) with .350 hitting.
Fr. S Reese Messer put up 44 assists and had nine digs to go with four kills, three blocks, and a service ace.
RS So. OH London Wijay had 10 kills to go with eight digs and a service ace.
Fr. OPP Abigail Mullen tagged 12 balls for kills and had three blocks, three digs, and a service ace.
Sr. DS Dani Thomas-Nathan matched her career high with 10 digs and had two kills.
RS So. MB Leah Ford led all players with eight blocks, three solo, and added six kills for 11.5 points.
Sr. MB Rylie McGinest scored seven kills in just three sets of action and hit .538 to go with two blocks.
For the Hawkeyes, Chard'e Vanzandt led all players with 21 kills and had 11 digs for a double-double. Carmel Vares put up 12 kills. Claire Ammeraal put up 41 assists to go with 15 digs, three blocks, and four kills.

HOW IT HAPPENED

USC hit .258 to .159 and had more kills (66-52), assists (60-48), digs (74-70), and blocks (10-9) than the Hawkeyes. It was the ninth match in double-digit blocks for the Women of Troy.
The Trojans led by one, 15-14, at the media timeout and neither team had produced a block, but USC built a three-point lead, 18-15, with a pair of blocks by Mullen and Ford. In the end, Ford put a solo block to the floor to wrap a 25-20 opening frame for the Women of Troy. Wijay had five kills to lead a septet of Trojans to collect kills in the first set. Mullen finished with three and USC totaled 16 (3e) on 45 swings to hit .289. The three USC blocks and 21 digs including nine from Deckert alone helped keep the Iowa attack at .073 with eight kills (5e) on 41 swings.
Faumuina collected seven of her kills in the second set and did it without error to hit .538 on 13 swings to pace the USC offense. The Trojans led by four twice but Iowa stayed the course and came up with a 27-25 win to even the match. Despite getting caught for the ninth tie of the set at 24-all, USC got the next point to reach set point first, but Vares had the final two kills of the set to hand the Hawkeyes the win. Messer played the first 20 rallies of the set but went out with a leg injury. Jr. S Allie Hazelwood came into the match and put up eight assists with and pick up a dig.
The third set was tied six times up to 13-all before USC took control and rode out to a four-point lead at 18-14. The Hawkeyes fought back but couldn't catch the Trojans in a 25-23 finish. USC had four blocks in the third and Deckert racked up 10 digs on her own to help hold Iowa to a .111 hitting rate (15k, 10e, 45att). USC got three kills apiece from Mullen and Faumuina on the way to .208 hitting (12k, 2e) on 48 attacks.
USC led by as many as three in the fourth set and seven different Trojans had kills in a 29-27 victory. The set was tied 14 times in a back-and-forth struggle, and the Trojans had to save a pair of set points to close out the match, which ended on another solo block by Ford. Faumuina and Brooklyn Tealer each had four kills to lead the offense, while Ford, McGinest, and Messer each had three apiece in the win. Deckert had six more digs and Messer added five.

UP NEXT

USC heads to Madison, Wis., to face ninth-ranked Wisconsin (13-2, 6-1 Big Ten) at the UW Field House on Sunday, Nov. 19. The Trojans and the Badgers will be shown live on Big Ten Network at 1 p.m. CT (11 a.m. PT).

MATCH NOTES

USC improved to 2-0 all-time against Iowa.
The Trojans moved to 3-2 in road matches and go to 5-2 all-time in the state of Iowa.
USC reached double-digit blocks for the ninth time this season.
Head Coach Brad Keller collected his 97th-career win.

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, X, TikTok, and Instagram.