No. 2 USC Concludes Regular Season on Home Sand

LOS ANGELES – Riding a six-dual winning streak, No. 2-ranked USC (22-4) concludes the regular season with a pair of home matches against top-15 foes this week. The Women of Troy are 5-1 on home sand and will meet No. 15 Grand Canyon (19-8) and No. 7 Cal Poly (19-8) on Thursday, April 18, at Merle Norman Stadium. The Trojans will honor the careers of seniors Abril Bustamante, Terese Cannon, and Alexandra Poletto between the two duals at approximately 2:30 p.m. PT dependent on the length of the first match.

MATCH #27 • Thursday, April 18 • 1 p.m. PT
No. 2 USC (22-4) vs. No. 15 Grand Canyon (19-8)
Merle Norman Stadium • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES HISTORY: USC leads, 6-0 (1.000) • STREAK: Won 6
LAST MEETING: W 3-2 (April 17, 2018 • MNS)
TV/STREAM: None
OPPONENT WEBSITE: GCULopes.com

MATCH #28 • Thursday, April 18 • 3 p.m.
No. 2 USC (22-4) vs. No. 7 Cal Poly (19-8)
Merle Norman Stadium • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES HISTORY: USC leads, 2-0 (1.000) • STREAK: Won 2
LAST MEETING: W 3-2 (Feb. 25, 2018 • Tempe, Ariz.)
TV/STREAM: None
OPPONENT WEBSITE: GoPoly.com

BARE E-SAND-SHELLS

USC owns three beach volleyball national championships including the first-ever NCAA title in 2016 (AVCA, 2015).
8th-year head coach Anna Collier is 195-36 (.886) and is the first and only collegiate head coach to reach 150 career victories.
The Trojans are 49-8 (.860) all-time at Merle Norman Stadium and are 3-1 in home duals this season.
AVCA All-Americans Abril Bustamante (Sr.) and Tina Graudina (So.) top the Trojans' lineup. The duo is 55-4 all-time together; the fourth most successful pair in program history for total victories.
Individually, Bustamante is 112-24 and Sr. Terese Cannon is 107-29 all-time. They rank sixth and seventh all-time among USC individuals for career wins.
Merle Norman Stadium will play host to the 2019 Pac-12 Championship from April 25-27. It also hosted the inaugural Pac-12 Championships in 2016.

LAST TIME OUT: The Women of Troy dispatched of two top-10 opponents on home sand last week. USC collected its seventh 5-0 sweep in a win over No. 9 Long Beach State and then took down longtime nemesis No. 5 Pepperdine in a 4-1 result. The dual victories extended the Trojans to a six-match winning streak, which matches the second-longest streak this season. Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina's two wins pushed them ahead of Jenna Belton and Jo Kremer (54) for all-time victories by a USC pair. The Trojan duo now has 55 wins together.

TRACK THE TROJANS: Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCBeach on Twitter for score updates during home matches and select road matches. The Trojans are also active on Instagram and Facebook.

SCOUTING REPORT: No. 15 Grand Canyon (19-8) is on a four-match winning streak and has won five of six; including four 5-0 sweeps. The only loss in that stretch was a 3-2 decision to Cal Poly. Mikaela Raudsepp and Jessica Stansfield hold the top court for GCU. The Women of Troy are 6-0 all-time against the Lopes and beat them, 3-2, in the teams' last meeting on April 17, 2018. No. 7 Cal Poly (19-8) is 8-2 in its last 10 contests but fell to Pepperdine, 4-1, and was upset by Arizona, 4-1, last week. Crissy Jones and Tia Miric are 16-5 at the top court for the Mustangs. USC has only met Cal Poly twice previously but won both times, including a 3-2 victory over the Mustangs on Feb. 25, 2018, in Tempe, Ariz.

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS: On Saturday, April 23, 2016, USC defeated Hawai'i, 3-0, to make head coach Anna Collier the first collegiate beach volleyball coach to reach the 100 career victories mark. She is now 195-36 (.886) all-time and just five wins from reaching the 200-win plateau. Previously, the next closest coach was Pepperdine's Nina Matthies who reached 100 in 2017 and retired from coaching following the 2018 season with 137 career victories. The next nearest active coach to Collier is UCLA's Stein Metzger who started the season at 110-38 and is now 136-39 (.777).

CENTURY CITY: Seniors Abril Bustamante and Terese Cannon reached 100 career wins during a trip to the East Coast. They are the seventh and eighth players to reach that career plateau with the Trojans. Bustamante ranks sixth with 112 wins (24 losses) and Cannon ranks seventh with 107 wins (29 losses) all-time. The other six Trojans among the top eight are school-record holder Sara Hughes (190); Kelly Claes (180), Nicolette Martin (141), Allie Wheeler (130), Jenna Belton (124), and Jo Kremer (103).

PAIR'S LAIR: USC's pair of Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina has won 55 matches (55-4) and are fourth all-time among Trojan pairs. In school history, they rank behind only Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes who won 147 matches; Nicolette Martin and Allie Wheeler (91 wins); and Sophie Bukovec and Alexa Strange (66 wins). Terese Cannon and Sammy Slater are just a step behind Bustamante-Graudina. They rank sixth among all-time USC pairs with 45 wins (45-14).

NATIONAL RECOGNITION: Trojan pairs have twice been chosen for the AVCA/CollegeBeachVB.com National Pair of the Week award. Both times, senior Abril Bustamante and sophomore Tina Graudina were selected. Their first time was March 13, 2018; and more recently on March 12, 2019.

POW-WOW: USC pairs have won the Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Pair of the Week award 17 times since its inception in 2016. Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina won the program's first award of 2019 (March 5) and were chosen again on March 26 for their third honor as a duo. In between, first-time winners Haley Hallgren and Alexandra Poletto were selected on March 12; and most recently, Terese Cannon and Sammy Slater were voted for the award (April 16). In 2018, Bustamante paired with Cannon for one of two USC awards. She also won with a then-freshman Graudina. In 2017, USC pairs claimed five of the eight awards. All-Americans Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes are owners of a record five Pac-12 POW awards. Jenna Belton and Jo Kremer became the first-ever No. 5 pair to win the honor on March 21, 2017. USC's Nicolette Martin and Allie Wheeler have the great distinction of being the first-ever Pac-12 Pair of the Week honorees; chosen from the No. 3 position as juniors on March 8, 2016.

USC HOSTS 2019 PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP: The sand at Merle Norman Stadium will play host to the 2019 Pac-12 Championship from April 25-27. The Trojans also hosted the inaugural league tournament at the stadium in 2016 and won the first of its back-to-back conference crowns. Arizona hosted the 2017 tournament and Stanford played host to the tourney in 2018. For more information on the championship, please visit Pac-12.com/beach-volleyball.

SAND CASTLE: The Women of Troy are 49-8 at Merle Norman Stadium since it opened in 2013. The Trojans won 19 straight home matches between 2014 and 2016; and went 10-0 in 2015 and 8-0 in 2014 on MNS sand. USC's later 16-match winning streak was snapped on Feb. 28, 2018, when UCLA and Pepperdine claimed back-to-back 3-2 wins over the Trojans. Only four teams have ever come to Merle Norman Stadium and beaten the Women of Troy: Pepperdine (3), Florida State (2), UCLA (2), and Long Beach State (1).

POLL POSITION: USC opened the 2019 season ranked No. 2 in both the AVCA Coaches Top 20 and the DiG Magazine Top 20 media poll. The Trojans have been ranked in the AVCA's top 5 (and appeared in every poll) for 55 weeks. The Women of Troy seized the top spot in both polls on March 23, 2015, following a victory over then No. 1-ranked Hawai'i on the road and held the ranking for the rest of 2015. USC has been ranked No. 1 in 24 AVCA polls, the most all-time. The Trojans, the Waves, the Wahine, and UCLA are the only four teams ever to hold the top spot in the poll. USC is 96-7 all-time when ranked No. 1. The Trojans received their first-ever No. 1 ranking in 2014 and maintained the position for much of the season, before the they fell to eventual AVCA champion Pepperdine in the national semifinals. In 2013, USC started the season ranked third and finished in fourth.

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Players Mentioned

Jenna Belton

Abril Bustamante

Terese Cannon

Tina Graudina

Haley Hallgren

Jo Kremer

Alexandra Poletto

Sammy Slater