USC Women's Volleyball Outside Hitter Brooke Botkin Named to Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference Team

SAN FRANCISCO – USC women's volleyball senior All-American outside hitter Brooke Botkin (Houston, Texas/Pearland HS) was named to the 2021 Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference Team and the Trojans were picked to finish sixth in the league standings in a preseason poll of the Pac-12's head coaches on Wednesday, Aug. 18. 
 
Botkin makes her third appearance on the Pac-12's preseason all-conference team (2019, '20). She is a two-time All-Pac-12 performer (2018, '20) and earned AVCA All-America second-team laurels as a sophomore in 2018. Botkin represents the lion's share of USC's returning offensive firepower. She led the Trojans in points (4.10 pps) and kills (3.62 kps) in the shortened 2020-21 season. She needs just 443 kills to climb into the program's career top 10. Botkin also produced 2.42 digs per set last spring to rank third on the team.
 
USC collected 74 points in the coaches poll. Defending Pac-12 champion Washington received the maximum 11 first-place votes (121 points) and was chosen to repeat. UCLA came in second by a hair with 101 points to Oregon, which finished third at 100 points. Stanford received the final first-place vote and had 95 points in a fourth-place finish ahead of Washington State's 77 points. Utah (66), Arizona (44), Colorado (39), California (33), Arizona State (30), and Oregon State (12) rounded out the 12-team poll.
 
Under head coach Brad Keller—in his first season with the program—USC (7-8, 7-8 Pac-12) concluded the 2020-21 season with four straight wins (at UCLA, at Arizona, vs. Colorado twice) and was competitive in each of its five-set losses to the league's top teams. The Trojans had seven matches cancelled for various reasons including COVID-19 protocols in the already-truncated Pac-12 season. Senior outside hitter Brooke Botkin (Houston, Texas/Pearland HS) was chosen to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team and received AVCA All-Pacific South Region honorable mention. 
 
For more information on the USC women's volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/WVB. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCWomensVolley on Twitter and Instagram.