USC Women's Volleyball Edged by No. 23 Arizona State in Five-Set Desert Battle

Friday, October 6

Tempe, Ariz.

6:00 PM

USC

10-5,4-1Pac-12

Arizona State

16-1,4-1Pac-12

Southern California

Arizona St.

Photo by: Thomas Fernandez/Arizona State Athletics

USC Women's Volleyball Edged by No. 23 Arizona State in Five-Set Desert Battle

October 06, 2023 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Highlights

Three Trojans posted double-doubles in a 3-2 loss to the Sun Devils

TEMPE, Ariz. – The USC women's volleyball team (10-5, 4-1 Pac-12) had a nine-match win streak stopped in a five-set loss (25-21, 21-25, 25-23, 15-25, 15-9) to 23rd-ranked Arizona State (16-1, 4-1) at Desert Financial Arena on Friday, Oct. 6.

KEY PLAYERS

Sr. OH Skylar Fields led all players with 24 kills (7e, 58att) and hit .293 hitting to go with 12 digs and two blocks. It was her 44th time in double-digit kills as a Trojan and her 24th time over the 20-kill mark. It was also Fields' third double-double of the season and the 13th of her career.
Jr. S Mia Tuaniga put up 45 assists to go with a career-high 17 digs for her fifth double-double of the season (20th of her career) and added five kills and a block.
So. MB Tyrah Ariail racked up 13 kills (5e, 24att) and hit .333 to go with three blocks (one solo).
Gr. OPP Kalyah Williams had 11 kills (4e, 27att, .239) for her fourth match in double-digit kills and had two solo blocks.
Jr. OH Katelyn Smith had nine kills, five blocks, three digs, an assist, and a service ace.
Sr. MB Lindsey Miller scored six kills (0e, 19att) to hit .316 and led all players with six blocks with three digs and an ace.
So. LIB Gala Trubint put up 20 digs and a career-best 10 assists for her first-career double-double. It was her 36th match in double-digit digs (11th this season) and her 12th time over the 20-dig mark.
For the Sun Devils, Marta Levinska had the double-double with 19 kills (7e, 47att, .255) and 10 digs. Geli Cyr had 11 kills, eight digs, and three of ASU's six service aces. Claire Jeter put up 10 kills (3e, 20att, .350) with five digs and four blocks.

HOW IT HAPPENED

USC recorded 70 kills to ASU's 53 and hit .256 to the Sun Devils' .211. The Trojans also had more digs (73-68), blocks (11-8), and assists (65-50), and were only beaten in the service game by a single ace (6-5).
Despite a slow start and 11 points surrendered on errors, the Trojans fought to stay close before ASU completed a 25-21 win in the first set. In the end, USC got seven kills from Fields and three from Williams to hit .143 in the opening frame. The Sun Devils had 14 kills with seven errors but didn't commit any service errors in the win.
The Trojans fired back and hit .333 in the second set with 17 kills on 36 swings. Ariail had six of her kills in the second and Fields added five more. Tuaniga racked up five of her digs and USC had four blocks to help hold ASU to a .219 hitting rate as the Trojans evened the match with a 25-21 win of their own.
USC led by as many as seven points at 14-7 and led by six as late as 19-13 in the third set, but Arizona State used a 6-1 run to wrestle away a 25-23 win and went up, 2-1, in the match. Fields had five kills and Smith added four more. The Trojans put up five blocks and out-hit the Devils, .270 to .243, in the loss.
The Women of Troy went wire-to-wire to get a 25-15 win in the fourth. Ariail and Williams had four kills apiece to lead the USC offense. So. OH Dani Thomas-Nathan served all three of her aces to help the Trojans open with a 5-0 lead and USC out-dug ASU, 17-13, as part of an effort to hold the Sun Devils to just six kills (4e, 29att) and a .069 hitting percentage.
Tied at five in the deciding fifth set, Arizona State made its move and ran away with a 10-4 burst to close out a 15-9 win to take the match. Fields had six of the Trojans' nine kills, but four USC hitting errors did the Trojans in as the Devils put up just seven kills (0e) on 17 swings to get the victory.

UP NEXT

USC heads down the interstate for a meeting with Arizona (6-10, 1-4 Pac-12) at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz., on Sunday (Oct. 8) at noon PT. The match will be shown live on the Arizona Live Stream platform.

MATCH NOTES

USC fell to 75-15-1 all-time against Arizona State and had a five-match win streak over the Sun Devils stopped. The Trojans go to 33-10 against ASU as the road team in the series.
The Women of Troy had a nine-match win streak ended by the Sun Devils; the program's longest since the 2015 USC team had a 22-match win streak to open the season.
The Trojans had an 11-match win streak against the two combined Arizona schools halted and were handed their first loss in the Copper State since 2018 (a six-match streak).
USC faced former associate head coach JJ Van Niel who is in his first season as the head coach for the Sun Devils.
The Women of Troy fall to 3-2 in five-set matches this season and to 149-105 in all-time five-setters (65-52 as the road team). USC goes to 11-5 in five-set matches against Arizona State. It had previously won the last seven.

For more information on the USC women's volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/WVB. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCWomensVolley on Facebook, X, and Instagram.