Southern California’s best in beach volleyball will play for it all in Alabama.
Top-seeded UCLA will take on third-seeded USC for the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship after displaying their dominance Saturday in Gulf Shores.
The Bruins (40-3) handily defeated Cal and Florida State, exacting some revenge after the Seminoles bounced them in last year’s semifinals, to establish program, Pac-12 and NCAA records for wins in a season.
The two-time defending national champion Trojans (31-5), meanwhile, showed a flair for the dramatic in their semifinal clash with second-seeded Texas Christian.
The Trojans found themselves down two points to the Horned Frogs (37-3) before Jenna Johnson and Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope came up with a 21-16, 21-19 win for USC’s first point. Soon after, twins Audrey and Nicole Nourse emerged victorious 21-15, 29-27 to grind out another point and even the match.
All eyes were then on Match No. 5. USC’s Olivia Bakos and Gabby Walker rebounded from dropping the first set 23-32 to take the second 21-16 and set up the only third set. Bakos and Walker won the last two points to wrap up a 15-12 victory.
BACK TO THE NATTY THEY GO ✌️#NCAABeachVB x @USCBeach pic.twitter.com/ME8Wu1ry9T
— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) May 6, 2023
Seeking their fifth national title and playing in their fourth consecutive final, the Trojans will take on the Bruins for the fifth time this season. USC won the first dual 3-2 before UCLA won the next three, sweeping the last meeting April 28 in the Pac-12 tournament. The teams will square off at 9 a.m. PT Sunday on ESPN.
Against Florida State, Jessie Smith and Marlie Monserez got the Bruins their first point with a 21-14, 21-16 win. Lexy Denaburg and Maggie Boyd followed with a nail-biter in their second set before their 21-18, 24-22 victory. The clincher was up to Abby Van Winkle and Peri Brennan, with Van Winkle burying a kill for the 21-14, 21-18 final to send UCLA to its fourth national championship dual.
After a lot of technical difficulties … here's your dual-clinching point for the Bruins that sent them to the NCAA Championship and eliminated Florida State!#GoBruins 🐻🏖️🏐🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/HjixropipV
— UCLA Beach VB (@uclabeachvb) May 6, 2023
Earlier in the day, the Bruins had advanced to the semifinals with a 3-1 victory over eighth-seeded Cal (29-10) in a rematch of their Pac-12 Conference title match that was also won by the Bruins.
USC went to bed Friday not knowing who it would be playing in the quarterfinals. Inclement weather postponed Loyola Marymount’s first match to early Saturday morning, with the fifth-seeded Lions knocking off 11th-seeded Hawai’i by a 3-1 score to set up their showdown hours later with the Trojans.
In the quarterfinals, the teams had to take a 30-minute break because of a lightning delay before the Trojans, who started the match trailing 1-0, prevailed 3-1 to eliminate the Lions (29-9).
