COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Southern California showed force at the annual USA Volleyball Beach Collegiate Challenge, winning both of its dual match-ups and the pair’s bracket over the past weekend.
Seven schools competed in this year’s tournament, including: Concordia, No. 6 Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, No. 1 Pepperdine, San Francisco, No. 4 UCLA and No. 2 USC.
Second ranked USC swept Loyola Marymount, 5-0, to open play on Saturday in the team duals. They followed with a 3-2 win over No. 1 Pepperdine later in the day. When the No. 3 pairs faced off, Nicolette Martin and Allie Wheeler for the Trojans took Skylar Caputo and Corinne Quiggle to three sets as the dual decider, 19-21, 21-14, 15-8.
Pepperdine picked up one win in the dual challenge, sweeping Long Beach State 5-0 in the tournament opener. UCLA went 2-0 on duals, not dropping a match with a sweep of San Francisco and Long Beach State. Loyola Marymount split the day after falling to USC, they rebounded for a 3-2 victory over Concordia, who lost its other dual to San Francisco, 5-0.
| Dual Results | ||
| Pepperdine def Long Beach State 5-0 | USC def Loyola Marymount 5-0 | |
| UCLA def San Francisco 5-0 | Loyola Marymount def Concordia 3-2 | |
| USC def Pepperdine 3-2 | UCLA def Long Beach State 5-0 | |
| San Francisco def Concordia 5-0 | ||
| Concordia 0-2 | Long Beach State 0-2 | |
| Loyola Marymount 1-1 | Pepperdine 1-1 | |
| San Francisco 1-1 | UCLA 2-0 | |
| USC 2-0 | ||
Competing in the pair brackets late Saturday and early Sunday were UCLA, LMU, Concordia, Long Beach State, San Francisco and USC. USC’s top team Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes won the title in the gold bracket, defeating teammates Sophie Bukovec and Alexa Strange, 21-9, 21-12. Long Beach State’s Rachel Nieto and Nele Barber took third after beating San Francisco’s Jurja Vlasic/Katarina Pilepic in three, 16-21, 21-17, 15-10.
In the silver bracket, LBSU’s Sammee Thomas/Kobi Pekich took home gold while the Pac-12 was represented by USC’s Wheeler/Martin for silver and UCLA’s Karly Drolson/Rachel Inouye for bronze. The Trojans swept the podium in the bronze bracket with Jo Kremer/Zoe Nightingale in first, Emily Young/Becca Dunn in second and Katrina Kernochan/Terese Cannon beating LBSU for third.