No. 3 USC Beach Volleyball Set for MPSF Midseason Rumble

LOS ANGELES – No. 3-ranked USC (8-2) heads north for the MPSF Midseason Rumble at Stanford's Beach Volleyball Stadium this weekend. The Women of Troy ride a seven-dual win streak into matches with No. 16 Grand Canyon (7-1) and No. 9 California (7-1) on Friday (March 7); and Oregon (3-4) and host No. 5 Stanford (7-3) on Saturday (March 8). All duals will be shown live on Big Ten Plus (B1G+).

THIS WEEK
MPSF MIDSEASON RUMBLE
Stanford Beach Volleyball Stadium • Stanford, Calif.
TV/STREAM: Big Ten Plus / B1G+ (Bryan Fenley & Madison Fitzpatrick)

MATCH #11 • Friday, March 7 • 8 a.m. PT
No. 3 USC (8-2) vs. No. 16 Grand Canyon (7-1)
SERIES HISTORY: USC leads, 11-1 (.917)
STREAK: Won 4 • LAST 10: 9-1
LAST MEETING: W 5-0 (March 2, 2024 • MNS)

MATCH #12 • Friday, March 7 • 12 p.m. PT
No. 3 USC (8-2) vs. No. 9 California (7-1)
SERIES HISTORY: USC leads, 13-3 (.813)
STREAK: Won 2 • LAST 10: 8-2
LAST MEETING: W 3-1 (April 25, 2024 • Tempe, Ariz.)

MATCH #13 • Saturday, March 8 • 10 a.m. PT
No. 3 USC (8-2) vs. Oregon (3-4)
SERIES HISTORY: USC leads, 10-0 (1.000)
STREAK: Won 10 • LAST 10: 10-0
LAST MEETING: W 5-0 (March 10, 2024 • Tempe, Ariz.)

MATCH #14 • Saturday, March 8 • 2 p.m. PT
No. 3 USC (8-2) at No. 5 Stanford (7-3)
SERIES HISTORY: USC leads, 15-2 (.882)
STREAK: Lost 1 • LAST 10: 8-2
LAST MEETING: L 3-2 (Feb. 21, 2025 • Honolulu, Hawai'i)

BARE E-SAND-SHELLS • TL;DR

USC has won the last four NCAA championships and owns seven national titles including the first NCAA crown awarded in 2016 (AVCA '15, NCAA '16, '17, '21, '22, '23, '24).
The Trojans own five Pac-12 titles (2016, '17, '19, '22, '24).
USC is 150-22 (.872) under sixth-year head coach Dain Blanton.
The Women of Troy are ranked No. 3 in the AVCA poll. It is the 115th time (of 115) USC is ranked; its 114th time among the top 5. The Trojans have also held the No. 1 spot a record 50 times.
USC is 23-4 in Northern California cities including Moraga (2-0), Monterey (2-0), Santa Cruz (1-0), and Stanford (18-4). The Trojans' four losses have come against UCLA three times and California once; all at the Pac-12 Championship.
Jr. Delaney Karl and So. Kaileigh Truslow have won eight straight matches and lead all USC pairs with nine wins this spring.
So. Zoey Henson and Jr. Madison White are 6-2 at the No. 1 position.
Gr. Ella Larkin (69-17), Jr. Madison White (63-19), and Gr. Maya Gessner (57-28) lead the Trojans in career victories. All of White's wins are with USC.
USC has celebrated 15 AVCA All-Americans and 32 individual certificates.

USC will have revenge on its mind when it meets the fifth-ranked Cardinal. Stanford was the last team to beat the Trojans (3-2) at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Classic during the season's opening weekend. Adjacently, despite its 18-4 record on The Farm, the only team besides UCLA ever to beat the Trojans on Stanford's campus is California in a 3-2 decision in the 2023 Pac-12 Championship.

LAST TIME OUT: The Trojans hosted the Battle for Los Angeles at Merle Norman Stadium and went 4-0 in their only home weekend of the spring. USC collected 5-0 sweeps of Concordia and Pepperdine on the first day and picked up a pair of 4-1 wins over No. 16 Washington and No. 8 Long Beach State on day two. The wins extended USC's home win streak to 30 consecutive victories and makes the Trojans 95-11 all-time at Merle Norman Stadium. The win over the Waves carried historical significance as it extended USC to a nine-dual win streak over Pepperdine—the longest run by either team in the 34-match history of the series. The sweep was also only the second time the Trojans have ever defeated the Waves by a 5-0 margin (Feb. 25, 2021). The four wins make USC undefeated at home in 2025 and extend the team's active win streak to seven duals. Several Trojan pairs went 4-0 over the course of the homestand including Zoey Henson and Madison White at the No. 1 position, Delaney Karl and Kaileigh Truslow at the fourth position, and Calinda Kok and Ella Larkin at the No. 5 position. Karl-Truslow pushed their win streak to eight matches as the pair improved to 9-1 overall.

NEW DIGS: USC plays its first season as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in 2025. The Trojans were members of the Pac-12 from 2016 through 2024 and won five conference titles (2016-17, '19, '22, 24) including the final crown awarded in 2024. With the dissolution of the league, USC moved to the MPSF and is joined by UCLA, California, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, and Grand Canyon. The first MPSF beach volleyball tournament will be played April 23-25 on Spiker Beach in Huntington Beach, Calif. The champion of the seven-team league will receive the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA championship.

RE-CAL-CULATION: Graduate transfer Maya Gessner played three seasons at California (2021-23) and won 54 matches with the Golden Bears. She is the fourth former Bear to join the Trojans and follows Ainsley Radell (2024), Caroline Schafer (2022), and Mary Buckingham (2014). Maya and her former teammates will face off USC's second match at the MPSF Midseason Rumble on Friday (March 7) at noon PT.

A B1G DEAL: USC's home duals will be shown live on Big Ten Plus streams this spring. As part of a new agreement between the MPSF and the Big Ten Network, beach volleyball and men's volleyball contests at member schools will be carried on Big Ten Plus and are available inventory for BTN linear broadcasts. Check USCTrojans.com for links to live streams and broadcast information.

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Players Mentioned

Maya Gessner

Zoey Henson

Delaney Karl

Calinda Kok

Ella Larkin

Ainsley Radell

Kaileigh Truslow

Madison White