More photos: Pepperdine vs USC »
Only about 30 miles separate their campuses.
Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center, it was ever closer as Southern California and Pepperdine battled it out in the final of the NCAA women’s volleyball regional.
In the end, USC was just too much.
The seventh-seeded Women of Troy advanced to their sixth national semifinal in 10 years with a 25-16, 26-28, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10 victory over 15th-seeded Pepperdine in 2 hours, 24 minutes.
A turnstile crowd of 4,101, sounding a bit hung over after Hawaii’s loss Friday to USC, was treated to an amazing defensive show that saw a combined 203 digs and five players with more than 20.
NCAA Tournament Regional finals At Honolulu » Southern California def. Pepperdine 25-16, 26-28, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10 At Lexington, Ky. » UCLA def. Texas 19-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-21 At Gainesvlle, Fla. » Illinois def. Florida 25-22, 23-25, 25-14, 25-20 At Minneapolis » Florida State def. Iowa State 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-11 Final Four At San Antonio Thursday Semifinals » UCLA vs. Florida State » llinois vs. USC Saturday Final » Semifinal winners All-Regional Team Honolulu Regional » Most Outstanding: Alex Jupiter, USC » Kim Hill, Pepperdine » Stevi Robinson, Pepperdine » Kendall Bateman, USC » Kanani Danielson, Hawaii » Jane Croson, Hawaii » Kathleen Ludwig, Kansas State
|
Senior hitter Alex Jupiter had 29 of them to go along with 17 kills and five aces in picking up the Most Outstanding Player award. Junior hitter Katie Fuller added 17 kills, and libero Natalie Hagglund 32 digs for the Women of Troy (29-4), who won their 12th straight.
USC will take on No. 3 seed Illinois on Thursday in San Antonio.
The Illini dropped unseeded host Florida 25-22, 23-25, 25-14, 25-20 to get to the national semifinals for the first time since 1988, the year that Texas upset defending champion Hawaii for the title.
In Thursday’s other semifinal at the Alamodome, ninth-seeded UCLA faces 12th-seeded Florida State. The Bruins, the only other team to beat Hawaii this season, ousted top-seeded Texas 19-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-21, giving former Rainbow Wahine associate coach Mike Sealy a trip to the final four in just his second season at Westwood.
The Seminoles outlasted fourth-seeded Iowa State 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-11. It will be FSU’s first trip to the national semifinals.
"After last night’s match, it was amazing we could come back and withstand that tonight," USC coach Mick Haley said. "It was a great effort by Pepperdine and a really good effort by our team not to panic.
"We had a great job from our bench and (walk-on freshman middle) Hannah Schraer really saved the day for us, gave us a lift when we needed it. And Alex went up and over the block in Game 4, which was amazing to me."
Jupiter had an amazing regional with 50 kills on 141 swings, seven aces and 55 digs. Joining her on the all-regional team were USC setter Kendall Bateman, Hawaii’s Jane Croson and Kanani Danielson, Pepperdine’s Kim Hill and Stevi Robinson and Kansas State’s Kathleen Ludwig.
Hill led Pepperdine (25-7) with 21 kills. Samantha Cash added 17 kills, Lilla Frederick 13 kills and 21 digs, and Robinson 29 digs.
"I guess we did hit the wall," Jupiter said. "We just had to keep fighting through."
"We went out swinging," Pepperdine coach Nina Matthies said. "We had our chances, just like Hawaii had their chances."
The Women of Troy dominated the serve-and-pass game in Set 1, with six aces that kept the Waves from running their quick offense. Hagglund had two aces as USC broke away from a 7-7 tie to a 14-7 lead.
Pepperdine closed to 21-16, but Jupiter, who tormented Hawaii on Friday night with 33 kills, capped USC’s 4-0 closing run with her third ace of the set.
The Waves rebounded in a big way in Set 2.
"We said screw it, we just wanted to go down swinging," Hill said.
Pepperdine found a rhythm and the holes in USC’s block in jumping out 16-12 and 21-18.
The Women of Troy answered, tying it at 21. The set was tied six more times, with USC holding off one set point and the Waves two.
At 26-26, USC’s Alexis Olgard hit wide and Victoria Adelhelm and Hill stuffed Sara Shaw to tie the match.
Set 3 followed a similar script, with the Waves again going out early and the Women of Troy playing catchup successfully. USC tied it at 13 and took a brief lead on a Pepperdine hitting error.
The Waves took the lead for good with a 3-0 spurt, highlighted by Robinson’s third ace of the night. USC got as close as 18-17, but Pepperdine closed it out with a 7-2 run that included two kills by Hill.
Trailing 2-1 for the second consecutive night, the Women of Troy opened up leads of 9-6 and 12-7. The Waves got hot behind Adelhelm’s serve, pulling to 12-11, then tying it at 13 on Samantha Cash’s 17th kill.
But USC got hotter. Jupiter had two kills and the Women of Troy pulled away for a 20-15 margin. At 22-19, Hill was blocked and two errors by Lexi Weldon forced a fifth set.
