The No. 15 USC women’s volleyball team kept things clean in San Diego on Sunday, taking down San Diego in straight sets, 25-23, 25-13, 25-21, at the Jack Talmadge Volleyball Classic inside Jenny Craig Pavilion.
USC moved to 2-2 with the sweep, and the win came with a balanced effort across the board. The Trojans finished with more kills, assists, digs, blocks and aces than the Toreros, and they never really let the match get away from their control once they settled in.
Abigail Mullen paced USC with 11.5 points, finishing with nine kills along with six digs, three blocks, a service ace and an assist. London Wijay was right behind with 11.0 points on nine kills, two blocks and an ace, plus six digs.
Leah Ford turned in one of her most efficient outings, hitting .417 with seven kills and a season-high seven digs, while also adding a block and an ace. Lilli Etter directed the offense with 27 assists and chipped in six digs, two blocks and a kill.
Mia Tvrdy was a force at the net, leading all players with six blocks while adding five kills and three digs for 8.0 points. Taylor Deckert posted a season-high 15 digs and added two assists. Adonia Faumuina finished with seven kills, four digs and two blocks, including one solo, while hitting .333.
For San Diego, Nemo Beach and Kierstyn Barton had seven kills apiece, though both were held to low efficiency numbers. Lauren Lynch finished with 14 digs and two assists, and Kylie Munday recorded 23 assists and nine digs. Beach also reached 1,000-career kills during the match.
USC’s numbers told the story. The Trojans outscored San Diego, 49.5 to 31.0, and led in kills, 38-28, assists, 36-26, digs, 49-42, and blocks, 8.5-1.0. They also had the edge in aces, 3-2, while hitting .206 compared to USD’s .061.
The first set was the tightest of the day. USC built leads of as many as five, only to see San Diego keep clawing back until the Toreros trimmed it to 24-23 on Beach’s fourth kill.
Wijay answered on the next rally with her seventh kill of the set to close it out, 25-23. Ford had four kills in the opening frame, Mullen added three, and the Trojans got a pair of early blocks while Deckert contributed five of USC’s 17 digs in the set.
The second set turned quickly once USC found its rhythm. After eight ties, the Trojans broke it open with a 10-0 run featuring Wijay at the service line.
The run started after Tvrdy’s block of Barton put USC ahead for good at 12-11. From there, Faumuina delivered three kills during the stretch, Tvrdy added back-to-back blocks to finish it, and USC rolled to a 25-13 win.
The Trojans hit .290 in the set and held San Diego to a .000 hitting mark.
San Diego opened the third set with some fight, jumping out to a 6-2 lead and later pushing USC into a back-and-forth stretch. The Trojans eventually grabbed the lead for good at 12-11, then stretched it to 22-16 before the Toreros made one last push and got within 22-21 on a 5-0 run. USC answered with a Ford kill and then a Ford-Faumuina block to finish off the 25-21 set and the sweep.
USC now heads into its first home match of the season and will play its next six contests at Galen Center. The Trojans open that stretch against Arizona on Friday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m.
PT on Big Ten Network, then host Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. and Oregon State on Sunday, Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. The matches against Colorado and Oregon State will be shown on Big Ten Plus.
The win moved USC to 15-4 all-time against San Diego and 2-2 as the visiting team, while also extending its winning streak against the Toreros to three matches. It was USC’s first road win over USD since 2018. The Trojans are now 48-13-1 all-time in the city of San Diego and 2-1 in three-set matches this season.
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