Senior outside hitter Skylar Fields and freshman outside hitter London Wijay had a combined 79 kills in the No. 25 USC women’s volleyball team’s final Pac-12 road trip to take on Washington and No. 9 Washington State this weekend, as USC split the decisions.
The Trojans (17-9, 11-5) swept Washington (14-12, 5-10) Friday in Seattle before traveling to Pullman, falling to Washington State (20-7, 10-6) in a reverse sweep. It may be the last time the Trojans play Washington State, as the Cougars are one of the few remaining teams in the Pac-12 who have not announced a conference move yet.
“I’m really disappointed with the outcome of the match today,” head coach Brad Keller said of the loss to Washington State. “At the same time, I’m really pleased with our effort and just our competitive spirit this entire weekend.”
The Trojans jumped out to a quick 2-0 start over the Cougars thanks to a 14-5 run by USC to end the first set, 25-15. In the second, the set was tied at seven apiece before USC went on a 9-2 run to put it out of Washington State’s reach.
In the third set, however, the Cougars gave USC a taste of its own medicine, switching the momentum around for a 25-15 Washington State win.
Sophomore libero Gala Trubint, who had 22 digs during the match, said the Trojans’ inability to slow the game down as things got away from them in the third set contributed to the momentum shift in the Cougars’ direction.
“It’s just important that we kind of hold out huddles and stay united as a team,” Trubint said.
USC took Washington State to extra points in the fourth set thanks to five kills by Fields late in the game after it was tied at 19. Washington State, however, had a star player on its own in outside hitter Iman Isanovic, who contributed four kills down the stretch and 24 on the day.
Fields finished with 29 kills, despite most of the Cougars’ frontline players having a few inches of height on the star senior. Fields, who recently surpassed the 2,000 career kills mark, has somehow heated up offensively even more the last week and is coming off of her third Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week award this season after her performance against Arizona and No. 15 Arizona State last week.
Despite Fields’ standout performance, Keller said that his team relied too heavily on her and Wijay — who had 18 kills in the match — in the final three sets, rather than spreading out the offensive effort like the Trojans did in the first two.
“We were setting them way too much,” Keller said. “We need a more balanced offense. … Part of that is a passing issue that we had in sets three, four and five. Part of that is the decision-making of the setter. Part of it is understanding situations in those certain rotations.”
The game marked USC’s first reverse-sweep loss of the season, which Fields said is a good opportunity for growth as the season edges closer to postseason play.
“It was a good lesson for us to understand that when we come out strong, we need to continue to do that throughout every single point,” Fields said. “The game’s not over until it’s over.”
Keller said a positive of the Trojans’ Sunday performance was USC’s fight as a team, despite losing control of the match down the stretch.
“I think we showed a lot of resilience,” Keller said. “Even at the end when we were getting blown out in the fifth set, we did not quit.”
The Trojans dropped the fifth set 15-11, but fought back from a 13-7 deficit to give themselves a chance before Washington State junior opposite hitter Katy Ryan’s two kills ended the Trojans’ run.
USC returns home to the Galen Center Friday to take on Cal at 7 p.m.