The official record for the two games with the national title on the line was 3-0, but little was easy for USC vs. UCLA.
The incredible Women of Troy won an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship at the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship held in Gulf Shores, Alabama on Sunday, and the seasoned North Twins finished in the 3s for the second straight year. was recorded. When Nicole buried an overpass in the sand to put an exclamation point on her third-set victory, her teammates went into a well-deserved frenzy of celebration.
The sun-kissed crowd packed into the Redneck Riviera venue and the national audience tuned in to ESPN experienced some nail-biting moments. Scores aside, all five games were extended to tiebreakers, marking the first time this has happened in an NCAA final.
It was almost expected when the Southern California Giants, college beach volleyball's preeminent programs, met for the fourth time for the NCAA title after splitting their previous six matchups during the 2024 season. That's what happened.
UCS's 3-seconds scored the decisive points, but the credit for allowing the team to once again take an enjoyable collective dive into the Gulf of Mexico was shared equally by the 2- and 4-second duo. . Both players put up clutch times in an eventful first flight, falling into a 1-0 hole before clawing back a three-set victory.
The top-seeded and No. 1 Troy girls (37-5) will draw attention, including seniors Megan Craft and Delaney Maple (the nation's top pair) and fifth-year standouts Aubrey and Delaney Maple. We enjoyed the rich veteran leadership of returning children. In addition to Nicole Knoles, they have added the knowledge of graduate transfers Maddie Kriz (Stanford) and Grace Seitz (LSU), both of whom have made significant contributions to their new team.
“The way (the players) handled the pressure was unbelievable,” coach Dane Blanton said. “We don't talk about it, but it's everywhere. That's the elephant in the room. Four in a row. Three in a row is common, but four in a row is unthinkable.
“Our team, our graduate students, our seniors, let's talk about that for a second. Maple and Craft and the twins have been four-year starters and have been to four national championships. It's unbelievable what they've done. There aren't any.”
However, the player who had the most impact on the outcome of the championship dual against No. 2 seed and No. 2 ranked rival UCLA (35-7) was the highly anticipated freshman Ashley Pater. Despite having every reason to succumb to relentless serve pressure from Jaden Whitmarsh and Tessa Van Winkle during a tense four-a-side match, the 5-foot-8 Pater was a scoring machine in the tiebreak. became.
After the 6-foot-2 Seitz poked a stuff block and a soft block to create an 8-5 working margin and land within a few feet of the end line, Pater used his hard spikes and knuckles to score six points. I stole it. His lunges and nifty off-speed shots ended the set 15-8. Suddenly, the amazing Ashley called up the match winner with a deft soft roller and sent it over the net.
Whitmarsh and Van Winkle erased a 20-17 lead in the first set to win 26-24. Seitz's play near the net eased the nerves of his young teammates, and they survived several match points to tie the second at 25-23 when Grace refused Tessa's icing.
If Pater and Seitz hadn't given USC a 2-0 margin, the second, third and fifth flights would have looked much different.
“It was really tough mentally not being able to close out in the first set when I was leading by three points,” Pater admitted. “Even though we lost 8-4 in the second game, we were able to hold out really well mentally. I'm really proud of ourselves. (From there) we had nothing to lose. , I gave it my all.”
The veteran Seitz remained calm and collected even when he was behind, knowing that “one of us could take over at any time,” and said, “I had full trust in Pater, who was behind me.” .
The first score the Women of Troy put on the scoreboard was equally heartbreaking.
UCLA's AVCA second-team All-American pair of Devon Newberry and Peri Brennan defeated sophomores Madison White and Kriz in two seconds during the first set, 21-14. But White and Chriss rallied to take the second point, 21-19, and held the Bruins duo to the first 24 points of the tiebreaker.
Kriz's kill gave them a one-point lead, but a bizarre and ill-timed miscalculation gave the Trojans a decisive two-point lead late in the game. Kriz's shot off Newberry's hard spikes flew over the air and landed intact (for USC) near the sideline, just a few feet from the net, right in front of the fifth-year Devon player.
White, an extremely athletic player, made a thunderous spike onto the court, scoring the deciding point for a 15-13 victory.
“We've always been taught to swing, and that's what we ended up doing,” said White, who went 31-6 on the season with five partners in four-man, three-man and two-man games. .
USC then won two of the first three sets by the time the second set hit the sand, putting UCLA further away than eight balls.
The North twins defeated Kenzie Brower and Jesse Smith 22-20, but lost the second set 21-15. In the third, Audrey's spike led to a 13-11 lead, Nicole followed with an ace, and a straight rejection of Nicole's overpass closed out the tiebreak at 15-11.
The record is four straight wins, all under the Noles' watch.
“We couldn't be here without our teammates,” Nicole said. “This was a team win. It just happened to be the court where we ended it.”
Blanton was full of praise for the fiery Nose sisters.
“I have a lot of faith in them,” he said. “They played a tough game in the second set, but we knew they were going to come back. One of the best teams of all time, the Twins. They just work hard. When you have a duo like this, , all the coaches know that he is focused and persistent, which makes him easy to work with.”
When the horn sounded to end the competition, Kraft and Maple had a tiebreaker with fellow top-teamers Lexi Denaburg and Maggie Boyd in the 1-second range, and University of Southern California sophomores Mavin Thomas and Maggie Boyd in the 5-second range. They were leading the pair 8-4. Madison Gellner, a 6-foot-2 freshman who expects big growth, led 4-2 in her third game against Ensley Alden and Natalie Mischkowski. USC finished the 2024 NCAA season with a 12-0 record and improved its overall record to 27-20 against UCLA.
The Women of Troy won their sixth NCAA title in eight tournaments held since beach volleyball was sanctioned as a sport in 2016. Kraft, named the 2024 Athlete of the Year by the AVCA, went 35-4 with a winning percentage of 91.2% (125-12). ) Her game record during USC's four championship seasons.
Blanton, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist who succeeded beach volleyball founder Anna Collier at the helm of USC during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, was named the AVCA's Player of the Year. Awarded as a coach.
“It's bittersweet to lose (the team's longtime stalwarts), but that's the state of college athletics,” Blanton said. “Freshmen are coming in, seniors are leaving. But what we did here was history and a tribute to our student-athletes.”