A Wise Decision

From Heritage Hall:

Start time for this Saturday's (March 29) USC Senior Night men's volleyball match in the Galen Center against Stanford has been moved to 5 p.m. (from 7 p.m.).  The Dodgers are hosting the Boston Red Sox that night at 7 p.m. at the Coliseum and over 100,000 fans are expected. Trojan volleyball fans should expect traffic and parking to be that of a USC football game day, so they are encouraged to arrive early.

Weekly Roundup

Women's Basketball - Nadia Parker had 18 points and 10 rebounds as the Women of Troy shut down UCLA 49-36. It was a historic low point total for the Bruins and half of their season average. It was USC's seventh straight win over UCLA ... USC is in sole possession of fourth place in the Pac-10 and could be a dark horse candidate for the NCAA tournament.

Women's Water Polo - USC opened up MPSF play with wins over No. 10 UC Irvine and No. 8 Arizona State. Michelle Stein was named the league's player of the week after scoring seven goals on the road trip.

Women's Swimming and Diving - In its last dual meet of the season, No. 25 USC beat No. 15 UCLA, 158-142.

Baseball - The Trojans open the season on Friday with a three-game series at Florida International.

Men's Tennis - No. 6 USC fell to No. 7 Texas at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Seattle over the weekend.

Women's Tennis - Coming off two losses, No. 11 USC cruised to a 7-0 victory over No. 52 San Diego.

Men's Volleyball - USC continued its oddly symmetrical league play last week, beating UC San Diego and losing to Long Beach State. The Trojans  take a break from MPSF this weekend and instead will play in the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass.

Lexus Gauntlet - It's all but over. USC leads 50 to 17.5, and it takes 55 points to clinch at least a split title. This will continue the odd tradition USC and UCLA alternating wins of the annual trophy. It's oddly like men's volleyball.

Weekly Roundup

Women's Basketball - The Trojans recovered from a rough road trip by returning to the Galen Center and sweeping the Washington schools. USC is 11-1 at home. Against Washington State, the Women of Troy were led by Nadia Parker (23 points) and Heather Oliver (21 points), who both had career highs. The WSU game was on Think Pink day at USC, a tribute to raise awareness for breast cancer. It was also the Trojans' chance to host Coach June Daugherty, who has made a comeback this season after a different sort of medical crisis.

Women's Tennis - No. 8 USC fell in the consolation quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships this past weekend. It was the Trojans' third straight 4-3 decision, and came after a seven-hour match the night before. Top singles Lindsey Nelson and Amanda Fink won their matches.

Men's Tennis - The Trojans are 7-0 after downing No. 27 Boise State at home this weekend. They're head to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships ranked sixth in the nation.

Men's Volleyball - No. 9 USC has had one loss and one victory in all five weeks of league play, but last week's win was a sweep of rival UCLA -- pushing Troy even further ahead in the Lexus Gauntlet.

Golf - In men's action, sophomores Rory Hie and Jamie Lovemark tied for fifth individually at the UH-Hilo Intercollegiate in Waikoloa. During the tournament Hie shot a school record 62 on the par-70 course. The Women of Troy are competing at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes.

Swimming and Diving - USC's men's and women's squads both lost to No. 3 Stanford over the weekend in their final competition this season at McDonald's Swim Stadium. Next up, Pac-10 Championships.

Volleyball Victorious, Lead on Gauntlet Grows

Facing multiple match points, the #11 USC men's volleyball team came back to upset #5 UCLA last night at the Galen Center. The match lasted five games, with the final one ending with an 18-16 score after USC had fallen behind, 14-12. The Trojans were led by Juan Figueroa with 20 kills and 11 digs.

With the win, USC now leads UCLA in the Lexus Gauntlet by a score of 37.5 to 10. The competition pits the schools against each other in several NCAA sports worth varying numbers of points. Football is worth 10, while a single water polo win is worth 2.5. Either school can clinch this year's trophy with 55.5 points.

So far in 2007-08, USC won in women's cross country, football, men's hoops, women's hoops and men's volleyball. The schools split in men's water polo, women's soccer and women's volleyball. There are 10 sports in which they have yet to face off, and some that will rematch (ex: basketball).

The competition was started in 2001-02, when USC took home the inaugural prize. UCLA won the next year, and the schools have alternated since. Each has won three times.

Also going on in USC sports:

• Women's Basketball: The Women of Troy beat the Bruins for a sixth consecutive time last weekend at the Galen Center. Now they're preparing to host the Oregon schools ... The team is rallying behind the WBCA's Think Pink campaign for breast cancer awareness.
• Swimming and Diving: USC alum Erik Vendt broke the American record in the 1000-yard free last week with a time of 8:36.49, more than six seconds better than the previous mark ... USC's 20th-ranked men and 21stranked women host Washington this weekend.
• Men's Tennis: Sophomore Robert Farah, ITA's 9th-ranked collegian, came in as the top seed in the Sherwood Collegiate Cup but fell in the final round to 2nd seed Lars Poerschke of Baylor ... The Trojans, ranked 6th in the nation, will start dual-match competion this weekend.
• Women's Tennis: Amanda Fink and Gabriela Niculescu made it to the doubles finals of this weekend's National Collegiate Tennis Classic, but fell to UCLA ... The 8th-ranked Women of Troy have been dealing with rain delays in their dual meet with Long Beach State.

APB for Good News

It's been a particularly rough week in the land of Troy. From Reggie Bush to men's hoops. Feh.

Even men's volleyball got crushed by Cal State Northridge, winning the first game but dropping the next three.

To buoy Trojan spirits, here's a quick story from legendary USC football Coach John Robinson about motivation. The video was shot at this week's national football coaches convention in Anaheim, and we'll have more highlights next week.

Also, if USC fans somehow missed it, the women's basketball team scored a giant upset over #2 ranked Stanford last week (USC has a free in-house recap). Due to some bad timing the Women of Troy did not get the love they deserved on this blog, but needless to say it was a huge moment for the team and could go down as their highlight of the year.

Also, Amy Rodriguez has returned to the U.S. women's national soccer team roster, and four other players from USC made it to national squads at lower levels.

See, it's not all bad.