No. 22 USC Women's Volleyball Outlasts UCSB in Marathon Five-Setter

Friday, September 5

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

USC

3-0,0-0Big Ten

UC Santa Barbara

2-1,0-0Big West

UC Santa Barbara

Southern California

Photo by: Bryce Dechert

No. 22 USC Women's Volleyball Outlasts UCSB in Marathon Five-Setter

September 05, 2025 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Highlights Press Conference

The Women of Troy stayed undefeated in a match that had 36 ties but still abided by Lawler’s Law

LOS ANGELES – The No. 22-ranked USC women's volleyball team (3-0) went the distance to complete a five-set win (25-21, 21-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-13) over UC Santa Barbara (2-1) at Galen Center.

KEY PLAYERS

Fr. OPP Abigail Mullen led all players with 27.0 points earned on 22 kills to go with five blocks (one solo) eight digs and a pair of service aces. Following a review of the environmental impact report, Mullen's 22-kill performance was a season high by a Trojan and the highest by a USC player since OH Ally Batenhorst had 22 in at Northwestern (Nov. 21, 2024).
Redshirt So. OH London Wijay put nine kills in the tin (2e, 20att) and hit .350 with one ace and a block.
Redshirt Fr. OH Brooklyn Tealer also scored nine kills (1e, 24att) to hit .333 and had a dig and a block.
Fr. S Reese Messer dished out 47 assists and had 11 digs for her second double-double of the season. She also had four blocks and scored a kill on five attempts.
Fr. LIB Taylor Deckert got her first start in the jersey and put up 16 digs with five assists and a pair of service aces.
Sr. MB Rylie McGinest led the Trojans with seven blocks and had four digs, a service ace, and two kills.
For the Gauchos, Eva Travis led scoring with 21 kills (11e, 55att, .182) with eight digs and three blocks. Emma McDermott put up nine kills and Kiersten Schmitt had eight to go with eight blocks and four service aces. Milan Rex put up a double-double with 21 assists and 13 digs while Cortni Youngblood led all players with 19 digs in the match.

HOW IT HAPPENED

USC had the edge in hitting, .220 to .143, and produced more kills (56-53), and blocks (14.5-14.0) than the Gauchos. Both teams had six service aces, but UCSB had the advantage on defense with a 63-52 edge in digs.
Set one was tied nine times and the Gauchos led as late as 18-17 before the Trojans closed out a 25-21 win on back-to-back kills from Mullen and Tealer. Mullen had six kills to lead all hitters in the opening frame while Tealer racked four on 10 swings without an error. USC put up three blocks to hold UCSB to a negative .026 hitting percentage and hit .273 itself with 14 kills (5e) on 33 swings.
It took 13 ties and seven lead changes to decide a winner in the second set, but the Gauchos evened the match with a 25-21 win on .306 hitting. Travis and McDermott each had four kills apiece and Ayva Ostovar dug up five balls to help UCSB hold USC to .229 hitting with 12 kills (4e, 35att).
The Gauchos took control of set three and led by as many as seven points twice before taking a 25-20 win for a 2-1 lead in the match. USC managed just nine kills (8e) on 27 swings and hit .037 under UCSB's .207 (13k, 7e, 29att). The Gauchos did their damage at the net with seven blocks to account for all but one of the Trojans' hitting errors.
USC claimed a 9-8 lead on the first of three blocks in the fourth set and held its lead to finish off a 25-19 win to send the match to the fifth. Mullen had seven kills while hitting .500 (1e, 12att) and served up two of the Trojans' four aces—Deckert had the other two—during a run that put USC on top by as many as 10 points at 20-10. The Gauchos fought back as Travis began to heat up for a pair of her six set-four kills and closed the gap to five before USC sealed the win.
The Women of Troy held several three-point leads in the fifth, but the Gauchos kept on fighting back and got within a point at 14-13, but Wijay ended all suffering with her tool-shot kill to close the books on a 15-13 win. She finished the frame with four kills while Mullen tacked on two more. Travis had five kills for UCSB to power the Gaucho offense, but USC racked 3.5 blocks to keep the Gauchos cold as the flu at .000 hitting with six kills and six errors on 23 swings.

UP NEXT

USC returns to action on Saturday (Sept. 6) with a match against San Diego (3-1) at 7 p.m. PT. The Trojans and Toreros will be shown live on Big Ten Plus. Before the USC-USD match, 13th-ranked Creighton (2-2) will face UC Santa Barbara (3-1) at 4 p.m. PT. The Trojan Invitational will conclude on Sunday (Sept. 7).

MATCH NOTES

USC improved to 30-9 in its all-time series with UC Santa Barbara and has won seven in a row over the Gauchos.
The Trojans go to 3-0 under Brad Keller for the second time (2022).
USC reached double-digit blocks (14.5) for the second time. The Trojans had double-digit blocks 20 times in 2024.
The Trojans played their first five-set match of the season and improved to 158-110 in five-setters all-time (68-41 at home). The match was USC's eighth five-set match with UCSB and the teams' first since 2000. USC is 5-3 in those contests.
The Women of Troy moved to 2-0 at home this season and to 218-60 all-time in the arena (since 2006).

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, TikTok, and Instagram.