Women's Beach Volleyball | March 26, 2019

LOS ANGELES – No. 2-ranked USC (16-2) plays only one dual this week, but will put its six-match winning streak on the line when the Trojans take on No. 5 Pepperdine (14-6) at Zuma Beach in Malibu on Saturday (March 30). The teams will meet at 10 a.m. PT for the second time this season; and for the second time in eight days.

MATCH #19 • Saturday, March 30 • 10 a.m.
No. 2 USC (16-2) at No. 5 Pepperdine (14-6)
Zuma State Beach • Malibu, Calif.
SERIES HISTORY: Even, 12-12 (.500) • STREAK: W2
LAST MEETING: W 3-2 (March 22, 2019 • Tempe, Ariz.)
STREAM: p1440 (Mike Dodd, Rob Espero, and Tim Hovland)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: PepperdineWaves.com

BARE E-SAND-SHELLS

• USC owns three beach volleyball national championships including the first-ever NCAA title in 2016 (AVCA, 2015).
• The Trojans are 2-6 all-time against Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif. USC's two victories were once each in 2015 and 2017. The Waves won twice in two Malibu meetings in 2018.
• 8th-year head coach Anna Collier is 189-34 (.892) and is the first and only collegiate head coach to reach 150 career victories.
• AVCA All-Americans Abril Bustamante (Sr.) and Tina Graudina (So.) top the Trojans' lineup. The duo is 48-3 all-time together.
• Individually, Bustamante is 105-23 and Sr. Terese Cannon is 102-26 all-time.
• Bustamante and Graudina were named Pac-12 Pair of the Week (March 5) and were chosen again on March 26.
• Each of USC's top three pairs are made up of a senior and a sophomore. All three pairs have won at least 25 matches together and rank among the program's top 20 all-time pairs for total victories.

The Women of Troy will face their oldest and fiercest rival on the sand for the 25th time. Following USC's win over the Waves in last week's ASU Invitational, the teams stand at an even 12-12 in the all-time series.
 
The Trojans have won each of the last two, which includes knocking the Waves out of the NCAA championship in May, but the Waves own a decisive 6-2 edge in matches played on Zuma Beach. The Trojans' two road victories over Pepperdine were logged in 2015 and 2017. Last year, the Waves won four regular-season meetings with USC, before falling to the Trojans in the NCAA tournament.
 
USC is on its second-longest winning streak this season and previously had a nine-match run between March 2-10. The Trojans are a combined 48-6 at the top three courts, but are 10-0 in duals in which either the No. 4 or No. 5 pair deliver a victory. USC's top tandem of senior Abril Bustamante and sophomore Tina Graudina is two wins from becoming the fifth pair in school history to reach the 50-win plateau. Eighth-year head coach Anna Collier is one win shy of her 190th and is within reach of her 200th career victory.
 
SCOUTING REPORT: Fifth-ranked Pepperdine (14-6) is under the direction of first-year head coach Marcio Sicoli, who replaced longtime Waves coach Nina Mathies at the end of the 2018 campaign. Pepperdine's six losses have all been to teams ranked in the AVCA's top five including three times to undefeated UCLA and once to USC. The Waves are 6-1 on home sand this spring and are led by their top pair of Heidi Dyer and Brook Bauer. Bauer and Deahna Kraft have also played several matches at the top court together.
 
LAST TIME OUT: The Women of Troy defeated a pair of top-10 opponents and collected three wins at the ASU Invitational to run their winning streak to six straight duals. USC claimed a 4-1 win over host Arizona State and then took down No. 5 Pepperdine in a 3-2 result on the tourney's first day. The Trojans concluded their trip into the desert with a 4-1 victory over No. 6 Hawai'i. Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina posted the clinching point in each dual and went undefeated without dropping a set. At the No. 5 position, Mollie Ebertin and Maja Kaiser also won all three of their matches in Tempe.
 
TRACK THE TROJANS: Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCBeach on Twitter for score updates during home matches and select road matches. The Trojans are also active on Instagram and Facebook.
 
ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS: On Saturday, April 23, 2016, USC defeated Hawai'i, 3-0, to make head coach Anna Collier the first collegiate beach volleyball coach to reach the 100 career victories mark. She is now 189-34 (.892) all-time. The next closest coach was Pepperdine's Nina Matthies who reached 100 in 2017 and retired from coaching following the 2018 season with 137 career victories. The next nearest active coach to Collier is UCLA's Stein Metzger who started the season at 110-38 and is now 125-38 (.767).
 
CENTURY CITY: Seniors Abril Bustamante and Terese Cannon joined USC's 100-career win club during a trip to the East Coast (March 12-15). They are the seventh and eighth players to reach that career plateau with the Trojans. Bustamante is 105-23 and Cannon is 102-26 all-time. The six other Trojans among the top eight are school-record holder Sara Hughes (190); Kelly Claes (180), Nicolette Martin (141), Allie Wheeler (130), Jenna Belton (124), and Jo Kremer (103).
 
PAIR'S LAIR: USC's pair of Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina has won 48 matches (48-3) and are fifth all-time among Trojan pairs. They need two more victories to become just the fifth pair to win 50 matches in school history. At the top of that list is Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes who won 147 matches.
 
NATIONAL RECOGNITION: Trojan pairs have twice been chosen for the AVCA/CollegeBeachVB.com National Pair of the Week award. Both times, senior Abril Bustamante and sophomore Tina Graudina were selected. Their first time was March 13, 2018; and more recently on March 12, 2019.
 
POW-WOW: USC pairs have won the Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Pair of the Week award 16 times since its inception in 2016. Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina won the program's first award of 2019 (March 5) and were chosen again on March 26 for their third honor as a duo. In between, first-time winners Haley Hallgren and Alexandra Poletto were selected on March 12. In 2018, Bustamante paired with Terese Cannon for one of two USC awards. She also won with a then-freshman Graudina. In 2017, USC pairs claimed five of the eight awards. All-Americans Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes are owners of a record five Pac-12 POW awards. Jenna Belton and Jo Kremer became the first-ever No. 5 pair to win the honor on March 21, 2017. USC's Nicolette Martin and Allie Wheeler have the great distinction of being the first-ever Pac-12 Pair of the Week honorees; chosen from the No. 3 position as juniors on March 8, 2016.
 
USC HOSTS 2019 PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP: The sand at Merle Norman Stadium will play host to the 2019 Pac-12 Championship from April 25-27. The Trojans also hosted the inaugural league tournament at the stadium in 2016 and won the first of its back-to-back conference crowns. Arizona hosted the 2017 tournament and Stanford played host to the tourney in 2018. For more information on the championship, please visit Pac-12.com/beach-volleyball.
 
SAND CASTLE: The Women of Troy are 47-8 at Merle Norman Stadium since it opened in 2013. The Trojans won 19 straight home matches between 2014 and 2016; and went 10-0 in 2015 and 8-0 in 2014 on MNS sand. USC's later 16-match winning streak was snapped on Feb. 28, 2018, when UCLA and Pepperdine claimed back-to-back 3-2 wins over the Trojans. Only four teams have ever come to Merle Norman Stadium and beaten the Women of Troy: Pepperdine (3), Florida State (2), UCLA (2), and Long Beach State (1).
 
POLL POSITION: USC opened the 2019 season ranked No. 2 in both the AVCA Coaches Top 20 and the DiG Magazine Top 20 media poll. The Trojans have been ranked in the AVCA's top 5 (and appeared in every poll) for 52 weeks. The Women of Troy seized the top spot in both polls on March 23, 2015, following a victory over then No. 1-ranked Hawai'i on the road and held the ranking for the rest of 2015. USC has been ranked No. 1 in 24 AVCA polls, the most all-time. The Trojans, the Waves, the Wahine, and UCLA are the only four teams ever to hold the top spot in the poll. USC is 96-7 all-time when ranked No. 1. The Trojans received their first-ever No. 1 ranking in 2014 and maintained the position for much of the season, before the they fell to eventual AVCA champion Pepperdine in the national semifinals. In 2013, USC started the season ranked third and finished in fourth.