USC Trojans women's beach volleyball

Last updated
USC Women's Beach Volleyball
USC Trojans logo.svg
University University of Southern California
Athletic director Jennifer Cohen
Head coach Dain Blanton
Conference Pac-12
Location Los Angeles, California
Home arena Merle Norman Stadium
Nickname Women of Troy
AIAW/NCAA Tournament champion
2016, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
AIAW/NCAA Tournament runner-up
2019

The USC Trojans women's beach volleyball team is coached by Olympic gold medalist Dain Blanton and competes in the Pac-12 Conference. [1] The team is the most successful college beach volleyball program with 6 NCAA national championships. [2]

Contents

History

The program began in 2012 with the construction of the university's new Merle Norman Stadium beach volleyball venue across the street from the Galen Center. USC played their first match in the stadium on March 10, 2013, and earned a 4-1 victory over Loyola Marymount. [3]

Merle Norman Stadium Merle Norman Stadium 1.jpg
Merle Norman Stadium

Through the 2015 season, national championship play was conducted by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). The Trojans won an AVCA national team title in 2015, with a USC team claiming the AVCA pairs championship in each of the 2013–2015 seasons.

The NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship was established in 2016, with the Trojans winning a record 6 national championships in 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Notable players

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball</span> American college volleyball team

The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team is an NCAA Division I women's volleyball team for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. They are a member of the Big West Conference and are led by head coach, Robyn Ah Mow-Santos. The Rainbow Wahine volleyball program remains a large source of financial income for the University of Hawaii athletic department, even surpassing what football and men's basketball generate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USC Trojans</span> Intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Southern California

The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the Trojans, the women's athletic teams are referred to as either the Trojans or Women of Troy. The program participates in the Big Ten Conference and has won 136 team national championships, 112 of which are National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships. USC's official colors are cardinal and gold. The Trojans have a cross-town rivalry in several sports with UCLA. However, USC's football rivalry with Notre Dame predates the UCLA rivalry by three years. The Notre Dame rivalry stems mainly from the annual football game played between these two universities and is considered the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football. The Trojans also enjoy a rivalry with the Stanford Cardinal. The USC Trojans are considered one of the most successful college athletic programs of all time.

Dain Blanton is an American former beach volleyball player who won the gold medal in beach volleyball in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney with partner Eric Fonoimoana. He returned to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens with partner Jeff Nygaard, becoming the first two-time U.S. male beach volleyball Olympian. He is the current head coach for the University of Southern California's women's beach volleyball team, having won 6 national titles with the program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USC Trojans women's volleyball</span> American college volleyball team

The USC women's volleyball team is coached by Brad Keller, who was named to the position on February 20, 2020.

Jeff Wayne Nygaard is an American volleyball coach and former volleyball player. He was a member of the United States national indoor team in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He was a middle blocker. He also played beach volleyball at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens with partner Dain Blanton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebraska Cornhuskers women's volleyball</span> Womens volleyball team of the University of Nebraska

The Nebraska Cornhuskers women's volleyball team competes as part of NCAA Division I, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Big Ten. Nebraska plays its home games at the Bob Devaney Sports Center and has sold out every home match since 2001. The team has been coached by John Cook since 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charleston Cougars</span> Intercollegiate sports teams of College of Charleston

The Charleston Cougars are the varsity intercollegiate athletic teams representing the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. The Cougars compete in NCAA Division I and are currently members of the Coastal Athletic Association. The university sponsors 20 varsity sports teams including men and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer and tennis; women's-only dance team, equestrian, beach volleyball, softball, track and field and volleyball; men's-only baseball; and co-ed sailing and cheerleading. The university's most successful sports are co-ed sailing, which has won 14 national championships since 1986, women's volleyball, which has qualified for the NCAA Tournament seven times since 2002 and men's baseball, which has qualified for the NCAA Tournament seven times since 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim McLaughlin (coach)</span> American volleyball coach (born 1960)

Jim McLaughlin is an American volleyball coach. He was most recently the head coach of the women's volleyball team at Notre Dame. McLaughlin was selected to be inducted into AVCA Hall of Fame in 2021.

The Penn State Nittany Lions women's volleyball program has had a long tradition, founded in 1976 by Tom Tait, long-time coach of the Penn State men's team, who coached the women's team from 1976 to 1979 and was named a USA Volleyball All-Time great coach in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tampa Spartans</span> Athletic teams representing the University of Tampa, located in Tampa, Florida

The Tampa Spartans are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tampa, located in Tampa, Florida, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Spartans compete as members of the Sunshine State Conference for all sports besides beach volleyball and track and field, which compete as independents. Tampa has been a member of the conference since 1981.

Lisa Love is an American former volleyball coach and athletic director. She was the athetic director of Arizona State University. At the time, Love was one of only three female athletic directors in a Division I FBS Bowl Equity Conference of the NCAA. Love began her administrative career at USC. Prior to becoming an administrator, Love served as the volleyball head coach at the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Southern California, leading her teams to the NCAA Division I Volleyball Tournament 13 times. In 2005, she was inducted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament</span> Annual american volleyball tournament

The NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament is an annual event that leads to the championship in women's volleyball from teams in Division I contested by the NCAA each winter since 1981. Penn State won the most recent tournament, defeating Louisville 3–1 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Stanford Cardinal women's volleyball team represents Stanford University in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They are currently led by head coach Kevin Hambly and play their home games at Maples Pavilion. The team has won nine NCAA national championships, the most of all time, and 24 regular season conference titles. They have finished as national runner-up eight times and appeared in the first 39 NCAA tournaments, failing to qualify for the postseason for the first time during the 2020–21 season. In January 2017, John Dunning retired as head coach of Stanford volleyball. The school named Kevin Hambly as the new head coach. Hambly came from the University of Illinois and 2017 was his first season with the Cardinal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship</span> Football tournament season

The 2016 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship was the first annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA women's collegiate beach volleyball in the United States. The tournament was played on the beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama, hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, from May 6–8, 2016. The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) had previously sponsored a beach volleyball championship prior to the NCAA's sanctioning of the sport in 2015.

Megan Norma McNamara is a Canadian beach volleyball player. Along with her twin sister, Nicole McNamara, Megan has competed in many beach volleyball events around the world. From the fall of 2015 until the spring of 2019, Megan competed collegiately for the UCLA Bruins, leading the team to its first Pac-12 and NCAA titles in the sport during the 2018 season, and a second NCAA championship in the 2019 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Hughes</span> American beach volleyball player (born 1995)

Sara Elizabeth Hughes is an American beach volleyball player. With teammate Kelly Cheng she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 2 in August 2023. Hughes has won six tournaments on the AVP Pro Tour and seven gold medals, one silver medal, and three bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour/Pro Beach Tour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merle Norman Stadium</span>

Merle Norman Stadium is a beach volleyball facility located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The on-campus USC facility, built in 2013, serves as the home of the USC Trojans women's beach volleyball. The facility has three sand courts where USC plays its home matches and holds practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 BYU Cougars women's volleyball team</span> American college volleyball season

The 2018 BYU Cougars women's volleyball team represented Brigham Young University in the 2018 NCAA Division I women's volleyball season. The Cougars were led by fourth year head coach Heather Olmstead and played their home games at the Smith Fieldhouse. The Cougars were members of the WCC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelly Cheng</span> American beach volleyball player

Kelly Marie Cheng is an American beach volleyball player. She and her partner Sara Hughes won the bronze medal at the 2013 U19 World Championships, the silver medal at the 2014 U21 World Championships, the gold medal at the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and back-to-back NCAA Championships in 2016 and 2017.

The 2023 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship was an intercollegiate tournament to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women's beach volleyball national champion for the 2022–23 season. The seventh edition of the tournament was held from May 3 to 7, 2023, at Gulf Place Public Beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The 2023 championship featured a single-elimination-only bracket for the first time, along with an expanded 17-team field. Nine of the participating schools automatically qualified by winning their respective conference tournaments, while the other eight were given at-large bids by the NCAA Women's Beach Volleyball Committee. The tournament was broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU.

References

  1. "Dain Blanton - Head Coach - Staff Directory". USC Athletics. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  2. "Southern Cal wins 2024 NC beach volleyball national championship | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  3. "USC Athletic Stadiums, Arenas and Facilities". USC Athletics. Retrieved 2024-05-17.

Official website