In front of a packed Galen Center for Kids Day, No. 22 USC Women’s Volleyball defeated the Washington Huskies 3-1 (25-20, 27-25, 21-25, 25-15) to secure its fourth straight win.
The victory marked Trojan head coach Brad Keller’s 100th career win.
“There’s so much effort that’s been put into this program, it just takes a really long time to build something special,” Keller said. “One hundred wins is great, but it makes me humble about how hard it was to get here. It’s been a lot of hard work and staying with it and learning and changing and adapting.”
USC hit .207% as a team and were able to limit Washington to hitting just .182% thanks to freshman setter Reese Messer’s 16 digs.
The Trojans (15-5, 6-4 Big Ten) set the tone early, winning the first set 25-20 while hitting .364%. Despite falling behind early, Washington (9-11, 4-6 Big Ten) hit .324% to stay in the set.
Following a timeout from head coach Leslie Gabriel, the Huskies responded with an 8-3 run. Freshman outside hitter Simon Mateska anchored the comeback with three straight kills to give Washington its first lead, 16-15.
A 7-2 run by USC secured the first set as sophomore middle blocker Mia Tvrdy had six kills and hit .600%. Tvrdy finished the match with 15 kills behind redshirt sophomore outside hitter London Wijay, who led the Trojans with 18 kills.
“I like the way that my team is progressing, I like the attitude, I like there’s a little bit of swagger, I like there’s a little bit more enjoyment than there was at the beginning of the season,” Keller said. “We’re playing cleaner systems and it’s starting to capitalize a little bit.”
The Trojans eked out a win in a tight second set that saw 13 ties and five lead changes. Facing set point twice, the resilient Trojans won 27-25 on a kill from Tvrdy that brought the Galen Center crowd to its feet.
Despite a fierce attack from Washington, which led for most of the set while hitting .267%, the Trojans were able to keep the set within shouting distance. With the score tied at 13, a kill from Tvrdy down the middle catapulted USC in front for the first time in set two.
Both sides traded points all the way to the end, but the Trojans pieced together a late run to overcome five service errors to take the second set.
“Once you get to 20 points, we call that the red zone, that’s where it gets really intense,” Keller said. “We’ve developed a niche to battle and not panic and push in those spaces. So we’re increasing our confidence there.”
Both teams picked up where they left off in the previous set, trading points to begin the third set. Washington began to pull away, leading 15-11 at the media timeout. Behind an energetic Trojan bench and 3-0 run, USC battled back to tie the set up at 19.
The two squads struggled hitting in the third set but USC’s 11 errors paved the way for Washington to pull out a 25-21 set win. Limited to hitting just .019%, the Trojans dropped the set. Mateska led the charge with four kills for the Huskies to send the match to a fourth set.
“It’s just errors,” Keller said. “That tells me that we’re playing at a high level, but our focus and our discipline has to continue to get better.“
Contrast the previous two sets, USC dominated the fourth set winning 25-15. The Trojans found a spark offensively, hitting .286% and shut down the Huskies who hit .075%. USC led by as much as 12, and Wijay recorded six kills to help clinch the win.
The Trojans will be back in action Wednesday night against cross town rival UCLA. The first set is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Galen Center.