The official tally of the national-title twin was 3-0, however little got here straightforward for USC towards UCLA.
The surprise Girls of Troy accomplished an unprecedented four-peat within the NCAA Seashore Volleyball Championship on Sunday in Gulf Shores, Alabama, with the clinching level recorded for a second yr in a row by the battle-hardened Nourse twins on the 3s. When Nicole stuffed an overpass to the sand to place an exclamation level on a third-set victory, her teammates had been despatched right into a well-deserved celebratory frenzy.
A sun-kissed crowd packing the Redneck Riviera venue and a rapt nationwide viewers tuning into ESPN had been handled to a bevy of nail-biting moments. The rating apart, all 5 matches had been prolonged to tiebreakers, the primary time that’s occurred in an NCAA last.
That just about was to be anticipated when these SoCal giants – the preeminent packages in collegiate seaside volleyball – squared off for the fourth time for an NCAA title after splitting their six earlier conferences in the course of the 2024 season.
USC’s 3s notched the decisive level, however the credit score for the group’s with the ability to take one other joyful collective dive into the Gulf of Mexico was equally shared by its duos on the 2s and 4s. Each stepped up in clutch time throughout an eventful and tone-setting first flight to tug out three-set victories after they’d fallen into 1-0 holes.
The highest-seeded and No. 1-ranked Girls of Troy (37-5) loved a wealth of veteran management from high-profile returnees akin to seniors Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple (the nation’s high pair) and fifth-year standouts Audrey and Nicole Nourse, plus the savvy lent by grad transfers Madi Kriz (Stanford) and Grace Seits (LSU), each of whom made huge contributions to their new group.
“Unbelievable the best way (our gamers) dealt with the strain,” Coach Dain Blanton mentioned. “We don’t speak about it, nevertheless it’s in all places – it’s the elephant within the room. 4 in a row. A 3-peat, that’s been achieved so much, however 4 is unthinkable.
“The squad that we’ve got, the grad college students, the seniors, let’s speak about that for a minute: Maple and Kraft and the twins, 4 years, 4 nationwide championships as starters. It’s unbelievable what they’ve achieved.”
However the single participant who most affected the results of the championship twin towards second-seeded and No. 2-ranked archrival UCLA (35-7) was a freshman, the much-ballyhooed Ashley Pater. Given each motive to cave underneath relentless serving strain from Jaden Whitmarsh and Tessa Van Winkle throughout an air-tight match on the 4s, the 5-foot-8 Pater grew to become a scoring machine within the tiebreaker.
After the rangy 6-foot-2 Seits created a working margin of 8-5 with a stuff block and a pokey off her gentle block that landed inside a pair toes of the endline, Pater tacked on six factors whereas using exhausting spikes, knuckle-pokes and nifty off-speed pictures to shut out the set 15-8. Out of the blue stupendous Ashley rang up the match-winner on a deft gentle curler that simply cleared the web.
Whitmarsh and Van Winkle erased a 20-17 deficit within the first set to win 26-24. Seits’ play on the web mitigated her youthful teammate’s jitters as they survived a number of match level to tug out the second 25-23, with Grace rejecting Tessa to ice it.
The complexion of the second flight with the 1s, 3s and 5s would have been far totally different if Pater and Seits had not given USC the respiration room of a 2-0 cushion.
“That first set, being up three factors and never with the ability to shut it (out) was actually exhausting mentally,” Pater admitted. “We additionally had been down 8-4 within the second, however we had been capable of keep so mentally in it. I’m actually, actually happy with ourselves. (From there) we had nothing to lose and we let all of it out.”
The veteran Seits remained calm and picked up even after they fell behind, figuring out that “both of us might take over the sport at any time,” and saying that she “had full belief in Pater behind me.”
The primary level placed on the scoreboard by the Girls of Troy was equally harrowing.
UCLA’s AVCA second-team All-American pair of Devon Newberry and Peri Brennan had put the hammer down on sophomore Madison White and Kriz on the 2s throughout a 21-14 opening set. However White and Kriz bounced again to take the second 21-19 and performed the Bruins duo even via the primary 24 factors of the tiebreaker.
A kill by Kriz offered a one-point edge, then a weird and ill-timed miscalculation gave the Trojans the essential late two-point separation. A dig by Kriz on Newberry’s exhausting spike sailed excessive over on one, fortuitously (for USC) touchdown untouched close to the sideline only a few toes from the web and proper in entrance of Devon, a fifth-year participant.
A thunderous cross-court spike by the uber-athletic White put the completion on a 15-13 victory.
“We’re taught to all the time exit swinging and that’s what it got here all the way down to,” mentioned White, who went 31-6 on the season with 5 companions on the 4s, 3s and 2s.
USC then received two of three first units when the second flight hit the sand, placing UCLA farther behind the 8-ball.
The Nourse twins squeaked by Kenzie Brower and Jessie Smith 22-20, however then went down 21-15 within the second set. A spike by Audrey put them up 13-11 within the third, Nicole adopted with an ace and Nicole’s straight-down rejection of an overpass closed out the tiebreaker 15-11.
4-peat within the books, all approaching the Nourses’ watch.
“We couldn’t be right here with out our teammates,” Nicole mentioned. “This was a group win. We simply occurred to be the court docket who completed it.”
Blanton was effusive in his reward of the fiery Nouse sisters.
“I’ve a lot religion in them,” he mentioned. “That they had a troublesome second set, however I knew that they’d come round. Among the best groups of all time, the twins. They simply work so exhausting. All the coaches know that when you could have a duo like that, it makes your job straightforward, as a result of they’re so centered, so tenacious.”
When the horn sounded to sign the tip of the competitors, Kraft and Maple held an 8-4 lead within the tiebreaker over fellow first-team All-People Lexy Denaburg and Maggie Boyd on the 1s, and USC’s 5s pair of sophomore Mabyn Thomas and 6-foot-2 freshman Madison Goellner (who tasks an enormous upside) had been up 4-2 within the third towards Ensley Alden and Natalie Myszkowski. USC completed 12-0 in accomplished matches in the course of the 2024 NCAAs and improved to 27-20 all-time towards UCLA.
The Girls of Troy earned their sixth NCAA title within the eight tournaments held since seaside volleyball was sanctioned as a sport in 2016. Named the 2024 nationwide participant of the yr by the AVCA, Kraft went 35-4 and received 91.2% (125-12) of her matches throughout USC’s 4 championship seasons.
Blanton, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist who succeeded beach-volleyball foundational legend Anna Collier on the USC helm in the course of the COVID-abbreviated season of 2020, was honored because the AVCA coach of the yr.
“It’s bittersweet to lose (the group’s longtime stalwarts), however that’s the state of school athletics,” Blanton mentioned. “There’s freshmen coming in and seniors going out. However what we did right here was historical past and a tribute to those student-athletes.”
[1] No. 1 USC def. [2] No. 2 UCLA, 3-0
RECORDS: USC (37-5), UCLA (35-7)
1. Megan KRAFT/Delaynie MAPLE (USC) vs. Maggie BOYD/Lexy DENABERG (UCLA); 21-16, 18-21, 8-4 DNF
2. Maddi KRIZ/Madison WHITE (USC) def. Peri BRENNAN/Devon NEWBERRY (UCLA); 14-21, 21-19, 15-13
3. Audrey NOURSE/Nicole NOURSE (USC) def. Kenzie BROWER/Jessie SMITH (UCLA); 22-20, 15-21, 15-11
4. Ashley PATER/Grace SEITS (USC) def. Tessa VAN WINKLE/Jaden WHITMARSH (UCLA); 24-26, 25-23, 15-8
5. Madison GOELLNER/Mabyn THOMAS (USC) vs. Ensley ALDEN/Natalie MYSZKOWSKI (UCLA); 17-21, 23-21, 4-2 DNF
Order of end: 2, 4, 3*
