No. 21 USC Women's Volleyball Sweeps Denver in Season Opener

Friday, August 29

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

USC

1-0,0-0Big Ten

Denver

0-1,0-0Summit League

Denver

Southern California

Photo by: John McGillen

No. 21 USC Women's Volleyball Sweeps Denver in Season Opener

August 29, 2025 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Highlights Press Conference

Freshman opposite hitter Abigail Mullen recorded a double-double in her first collegiate match with 13 kills and 11 digs

LOS ANGELES – The No. 21-ranked USC women's volleyball team (1-0) opened its 2025 campaign in front of a record crowd of 5,606 fans with a 3-0 sweep (28-26, 25-16, 25-20) of Denver (0-1) at Galen Center on Friday, Aug. 29.

KEY PLAYERS

Fr. OPP Abigail Mullen led all players with 13 kills (1e, 29att) to hit .414 in her collegiate debut and shared team-high honors with 11 digs for a double-double.
Redshirt Jr. OH Adonia Faumuina logged nine kills (2e, 21att, .333) with three digs and two blocks.
Sr. MB Rylie McGinest had eight kills without error (14att) to hit .571 and added three blocks and a pair of digs.
Fr. S Reese Messer dished out 36 assists in her first college match to help the Trojans hit .298 (46k, 12e, 114att) and added six digs, one block, one service ace, and three kills (1e, 8att, .250).
So. MB Mia Tvrdy logged seven kills and led all players with five blocks (one solo).
Sr. LIB Gala Trubint put up 11 digs for her 71st-career match in double-digit digs.
For the Pioneers, Genevieve Lewis led with 10 kills. Alayna Finucan led all players with 12 digs and had five assists. Emma Mirabelli had 11 digs, four kills, and two assists. Ava Reynolds had seven kills and three digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Trojans led set one by as many as three points but could never pull away from the Pioneers in a set that had 10 ties and four lead changes. The last change landed in USC's lane when London Wijay's tip-kill knotted the score at 26-all. Faumuina made it 27-26 when she tooled the Pioneer block before Tvrdy sewed up a 28-26 win with her kill. Mullen had six of her kills in the opening frame and the Trojans put up four blocks to hold Denver to a .067 hitting rate (9k, 7e, 30att).
USC used a 5-0 run to claim a 9-6 lead in set two and brought home the bacon with a 25-16 win for a 2-0 lead in the match. Four different women had three kills apiece and Mullen racked up six digs in the set as USC hit .310 (16k, 3e, 42att) over Denver's .152 effort (8k, 3e, 33att).
The Trojans' efficiency proved secular in the third set as USC never trailed en route to a 25-20 win for the sweep. USC was the dictionary definition of balance as six different Trojans scored kills led by five from Faumuina and four more from Mullen. McGinest totaled three, while Tvrdy and Wijay had two each. Messer handed out 11 more assists in the third to lift the Women of Troy to a .405 hitting percentage (17k, 2e) on 37 swings.

UP NEXT

USC plays its first road match of the season in a Sunday-matinee meeting with Loyola Marymount (0-0). The teams will play at Gersten Pavilion in a 1 p.m. PT start and will be shown live on ESPN+.

MATCH NOTES

USC evened its all-time series with Denver, 1-1, with the win. The Pioneers were also the Trojans' season-opening opponent in 2021 when they claimed a 3-2 win at Galen Center.
The Trojans improved to 40-10 all-time in season openers with a 3-3 mark under sixth-year head coach Brad Keller. USC also goes to 13-2 in season openers played at home.
The 5,606 fans in attendance set a program record for home opener attendance, breaking a mark set in 2011 (5,385) in a match against UCLA on Sept. 9. It is also the third largest crowd for a USC women's volleyball match all-time; behind only 7,303 (vs. UCLA, Oct. 13, 2024) and 6,346 (vs. UCLA, Nov. 25, 2015).
USC opened its season with a 3-0 victory for the second straight year (3-0 vs. Pepperdine, Aug. 30, 2024).

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.