USC women capture fourth NCAA beach volleyball title
Top-seeded and No. 1ranked USC beat Florida State 3-1 on Sunday in Gulf Shores, Ala., to win its second consecutive NCAA women’s beach volleyball championship.
USC (37-1) made its fifth appearance in the NCAA title game and finished its season with a 36-match winning streak. The Trojans won their fourth national title and back-to-back NCAA crowns for the second time. They previously did so in 2016 and 2017 — the first years a national champion was crowned.
USC’s Hailey Harward and Tina Graudina beat Brook Bauer and Maddie Anderson 21-17 and 21-15 as the Trojans took a 2-1 lead, and Julia Scoles and Delaynie Maple closed out the Seminoles’ Anna Long and Kate Privett 25-23, 21-12 to give USC the 3-1 victory.
Florida State (33-11) fell to 5-17 all time against USC. Earlier Sunday, the Seminoles beat UCLA 3-2 to advance to the title match.
Makenzie Fischer scored four goals and Ryann Neushul added three, and Stanford pulled away over the final three minutes to beat USC 10-7 in Ann Arbor, Mich., as the Cardinal won their eighth NCAA women’s water polo championship.
Stanford (25-2) won 11 straight matches to end the season. USC finished 20-4.
Jewel Roemer scored to give Stanford the lead for good and make it 8-7 with nearly three minutes left.
Trojans goalie Carolyne Stern had a career-best 13 saves. Mireia Guiral and Tilly Kearns each scored two goals for USC.
Pac-12 Conference cochampion USC is headed to the NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament. The Trojans (13-4) received an at-large berth and will face Virginia (9-9) on Friday in Chapel Hill, N.C. The winner of that opening-round game takes on host North Carolina on Sunday. The Tar Heels are 18-0 and the top seed in the
29-team field.
Former Baylor quarterback Gerry Bohanon will transfer to South Florida, he announced on social media.