USC Women's Volleyball Falls to No. 21 Minnesota in Straight Sets

Sunday, November 1

Los Angeles, Calif.

1:00 p.m. PT

USC

9-13,3-9Big Ten

Minnesota

14-6,8-4Big Ten

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Minnesota	25	25	25	3
Southern California	19	16	23	0

Highlights

Photo by: Rishabh Anand

November 01, 2026 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Highlights

The Trojans were led by a 12-kill performance from Abigail Mullen in a loss to the Golden Gophers

LOS ANGELES – The USC women's volleyball team (9-13, 3-9 Big Ten) dropped a three-set decision (25-19, 25-16, 25-23) to No. 21 Minnesota (14-6, 8-4) at Galen Center on Sunday, Nov. 1.

KEY PLAYERS

So. OPP Abigail Mullen reached double-digit kills for the 14th time and put up 13.5 points on 12 kills (6e, 35att) to go with five digs, one block, and one service ace.
RS Sr. OH Adonia Faumuina put up nine kills (3e, 22att) with .273 hitting and added five digs and four blocks.
Jr. MB Mia Tvrdy had six kills, two blocks, and scored a service ace.
Jr. S Lilli Etter tossed out 23 assists to go with seven digs, a service ace, and a block.
Fr. OH Riley Malloy scored five kills (0e) on 17 attacks to hit .294.
For the Gophers, Mckenna Wucherer led all players with 17.0 points earned on 11 kills, four service aces, and four blocks to go with five digs. Carly Gilk totaled 10 kills (2e, 14att) and hit .571. Zeynep Palabiyik led all players with 13 digs. Stella Swenson put up 27 assists to go with six digs, five kills, three blocks, and a service ace.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Minnesota never trailed in the opening set and claimed a 25-19 win behind .323 hitting. The Gophers collected 14 kills, four blocks, and had a pair of service aces despite logging six service errors. USC got three kills from Mullen and two each from Faumuina and Tvrdy but hit .107 (8k, 5e) on 28 swings.
The Golden Gophers went on top, 2-0, with a 25-16 win in the second set. Minnesota hit .286 and had 11 kills (3e) on 28 attacks over the Trojans' .086 effort. USC registered 10 kills but had seven errors on 35 attempts. The Gophers put up six blocks for the bulk of those seven errors. Mullen totaled six kills to lead the USC attack.
USC hit .317 in the third and produced 16 kills (3e) on 41 swings but came up on the short end of a 25-23 finish to seal the sweep for the Gophers. Minnesota hit .359 and had 16 kills (2e) on 39 attacks. Both teams had three service aces apiece and one block each, but USC won the floor with a 20-16 edge in digs. It took 12 ties and six lead changes, but Wucherer delivered the final two points of the match on back-to-back service aces.

UP NEXT

USC takes its longest trip of the season when the Trojans visit Maryland (12-11, 2-10 Big Ten) and Rutgers (11-13, 2-10) next week. The Women of Troy face the Terrapins for a 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) match on Thursday (Nov. 5) at XFINITY Center in College Park, Md. USC then heads to Piscataway, N.J. to meet the Scarlet Knights at Jersey Mike's Arena on Saturday (Nov. 7) at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT). Both matches will be shown live on Big Ten Plus.

MATCH NOTES

USC falls to 6-3-1 all-time against Minnesota and lost to the Gophers for the first time since 2004.
The Trojans go to 4-8 at home this fall, which includes a 0-6 mark against Big Ten opponents.
The Women of Troy met their 10th ranked opponent this season and moved to 2-8 in matches against ranked foes.

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.