The No. 16 Trojans (3-2, 0-0 Big Ten) beat the unranked Wildcats (2-5, 0-0) 3-1 Friday during USC’s home opener at Galen Center.
Despite the victory, USC head coach Brad Keller was less than thrilled with the level of play.
“I thought it was pretty bad volleyball, honestly,” Keller said in the postgame press conference. “I know that’s probably harsh to say, but I didn’t think it was great volleyball– but I thought that we were able to dig deep enough to grind through it a little bit.”
Then, the Trojans dug deep to beat the Wildcats 25-21 in the first set.
Both teams raced to 10 until a four-point run by the Trojans brought it to 13-10.
Then the Wildcats made the mistake of sending the Trojans a free ball.
Junior setter Lili Etter found redshirt junior middle blocker Leah Ford for a massive kill to extend the score to a five-point lead.
After the media break, the Trojans surged ahead to a 20-14 lead before the Wildcats called a timeout of their own.
The break proved fruitful for Arizona, as they went on a small run until a kill by redshirt senior outside hitter Adonia Faumuina brought it to 21-17.
An ace by freshman outside hitter Layli Ostovar brought the game to set point, but Arizona senior outside hitter Destiny Ndam-Simpson found her way through the Trojan triple-block to temporarily postpone the set loss. Then, junior outside hitter Carlie Cisneros had a kill to close the gap to three points.
Finally, redshirt junior outside hitter London Wijay closed out the set with a kill.
Despite a few errors of her own, Wijay had the hot hand on the court with 14 kills overall.
After the match, Wijay spoke about how she bounces back from a mistake.
“I just get really angry at myself, so then I think ‘I’m gonna hit the ball as hard as I freaking can’,” Wijay said. “I know I’m super capable… I don’t get nervous or shy away. I’m like, ‘serve me the next ball’.”
At the beginning of set two, the teams traded points.
Then, USC ran out of steam.
The Wildcats went on a seven-point run, bringing the score to 15-12, tempered only by the media timeout.
The run ended when junior opposite hitter Kennedy Osunsanmi hit the ball wide.
A kill from Wijay on the outside brought the score to 23-18.
The Trojans seemed to be turning up the heat– but it was too little, too late. The set ended 25-20 with an out-of-bounds serve by sophomore libero Taylor Deckert.
The Trojans turned it around for set three, with a swift 25-20 victory that saw only one tie score.
The crowd was electric after an overpass kill from Faumuina ended a long rally and brought the score to 19-15.
Ford executed several key attacks, with four kills in the set, on top of two aces from the first two. She ended the night with a whopping .571 hitting percentage.
“I’m just really hyped about this season,” Ford said. “This is my senior year, my last time with Adonia, and I think that motivates me to really just give it my best this year.”
The Trojans burst out of the gate in set four, staying in the lead the entire time.
Faumuina led the attack with five kills in the set.
On defense, Etter had nine digs in set four. She finished the night with 47 assists, a season-high.
Other notable performances included Ostovar, who was perfect on serve receive, going 15-for-15 all night.
Though the final set saw six service errors from the Trojans, they managed to cinch a 25-23 victory to close out the series.
Ultimately, the match displayed something the team hopes to focus on all season: resilience.
“It’s in between the ears, not the skill set,” said Keller. “It’s about our mentality and mindset of being tough and responding.”
The Trojans return to Galen Center Saturday at 6 p.m. to face off with the Colorado Buffaloes.
Edited by Adriana Brady and Bennett M. Weinschenk