NCAA beach volleyball: No. 1 USC dominates in Florida, No. 2 UCLA tops East-West

Perennial power USC enjoyed a fruitful trip to Florida as rival UCLA led the West’s charge over the East on fabled Manhattan Beach. Our NCAA beach volleyball report also recaps the rest of a busy week and sets the stage for an upcoming weekend chock-full of midseason conference tournaments.  

Champs sizzle in Sunshine State

 The training wheels are off and the serious pedaling on a four-peat has begun for Coach Dain Blanton’s USC juggernaut.

Behind the dominating top pair of Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple, and a portal-fueled peloton of road-tested veterans, the Women of Troy seemingly hit another gear this past weekend during the two-day FAU Invitational on the wind-blown shores of the Atlantic in Pompano Beach, Florida.

The three-time defending national champions notched a resounding 4-1 victory over No. 5 TCU in a rematch of the 2023 NCAA single-elimination semifinal. In the highlight match of the weekend nationwide, Kraft and Maple handed the Horned Frogs’ Hailey Hamlett and Anhelina Khmil their first loss of the season by an air-tight 21-19, 18-21, 15-13 margin.

Ranked No. 1 in the AVCA coaches poll and winners of 12 in a row, the Women of Troy also blistered formidable foes familiar with Pompano’s white coral sand – No. 12 Florida International (14-3) and No. 16 Florida Atlantic (10-7) – without dropping a match. 

In the opening dual of the weekend against Division-II Palm Beach Atlantic, Blanton gave court time to reserves Delaney Karl and Grace Hong at the 5s, USC’s lone dropped match.

Senior All-Americans Kraft and Maple (17-1 in 2024) also took a 21-15, 21-16 victory over FIU’s previously undefeated Giada Bianchi and Reka Orsi Toth, who had been named the AVCA national pair of the week for the previous weekend. A 4-0 record earned Kraft and Maple the AVCA’s recognition as national pair of the week.

“There is so much parity at the top, so for these No. 1 teams, there’s so little room for error,” Blanton told us. “Megan and Delaynie are extremely consistent. They know how to win. They know to shift into that next gear in the clutch and that’s hard to teach.”

USC is 16-2, with the only wrong turns coming during the season’s opening week in Hawai’i against Stanford in pool play and to UCLA in the title dual of the championship bracket.

“That first weekend in Hawai’i, I wasn’t overly concerned about which way it went,” Blanton said. “I just wanted to get a barometer of where we were at on our side of the net, which is most important. Now we’ve locked it down and we’ve really played solid

“But we played solid that weekend, too, against excellent teams. I love that kind of competition. 

“I don’t like playing throwaway games. I want to play top teams as much as I can, as many times as I can, because the team that improves the most during the season is most likely to win the championship. Still a long way to go, but we definitely have the personnel.”

At the 2s are grad-student twins Nicole (108-20 during her USC career) and Audrey (105-20) Nourse. Grad transfers Grace Seits (Stanford) and Maddi Kriz (LSU) are 13-1 at the 3s. Ainsley Radell, a grad transfer from California, has won eight of her last nine matches at the 5s while paired with sophomore Mabyn Thomas or freshman Ashley Pater.

Younger players have exceled, too. Sophomore Madison White is 16-2 overall playing at the 4s and 3s, and most recently has won her last five on Court 4 with Pater, who in the summer 2023 played in the main draws of five professional AVP events.

“The Nourse twins are competing at the highest spot they’ve ever played,” Blanton noted. “We’ll settle them in, and they’re playing really good elite volleyball. Maddie Kriz and Grace Seits have been phenomenal. They have great experience and have developed wonderful chemistry.

“Ainsley, who was at the 2s last year for Cal, has been spectacular at the 5s. Maddie White, who played the 2s for us last year, athletically, she can go with anybody in the country. She’s a physical specimen and as her game gets more steady, she’s going to be unstoppable.”

Meanwhile, TCU (14-2, with its only losses coming to USC and Stanford) held serve in their other three South Florida duals. The Horned Frogs edged host Florida Atlantic 3-2, and took 4-1 victories over Florida Gulf Coast and Palm Beach Atlantic (9-10), prompting Coach Hector Gutierrez to tell VBM, “The weekend overall went well.”

He added that the showdown “versus USC was intense and played at a very high level – one of those games that I could go either way since both teams played their best. We had to battle the Florida teams in the wind, which is always hard, but that’s why we came to play against them under those conditions. We will face something similar at Gulf Shores (site of the NCAA tournament) so it was a great test for the team.”

TCU dodged one injury scare when Arizona transfer Alex Parkhouse had a knee issue that caused her team to forfeit against Palm Beach Atlantic. But Parkhouse returned to play against USC and picked up the Horned Frogs’ only point, pairing with Sutton MacTavish to sweep the Nourses. However, sophomore Kaitlyn Bradley’s status is uncertain after she broke her left hand,

Other than getting whitewashed by USC, Florida International put in strong work, topping Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast and Division-II Palm Beach Atlantic. The host Owls picked a victory over Palm Beach Atlantic, but also fell to the Women of Troy and TCU, the latter by a 3-2 count. FGCU (9-9) lost twice.

Clear advantage, West

Eight of the Top 20 gathered for the East Meets West Invitational on iconic Manhattan Beach, where the West teams went 10-4 over two days. No. 2 UCLA (15-4) keyed that result, rolling over all four of its opponents while winning 18 of 20 matches.

The Bruins’ top pair of Lexy Denaburg and Maggie Boyd (15-4) set the tone with four sweeps by a 168-117 margin, getting their closest tussle from FSU’s Maddie Anderson and Skyler Germann 21-18, 21-14. Junior Natalie Myszkowski and sophomore Ensley Alden were 4-0 at the 5s and have been 16-1 anchors for the Bruins all season.

The East squads that most needed to make statements – No. 4 Florida State (15-2) and No. 8 LSU (10-3) – each went 2-2.

LSU took the best “W” with a mild 3-2 upset of No. 6 Cal (12-4) in a dual in which three of the matches needed three sets, and also topped No. 10 Loyola Marymount (9-8) 3-2. But the Bayou Bengals dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 13 Hawai’i (8-7), with four of the matches going to a tiebreaking set, and lost 4-1 to UCLA.

“We came into this weekend knowing that if we played our best across the board, we would win four matches,” LSU coach Russell Brock said. “However, even with those expectations, heading back 2-2 isn’t considered a bad weekend. It could have been better, but the wins we earned were a good representation of our ability.”

Florida State handled Loyola Marymount 3-2, winning on the lower three courts, and Hawai’i 4-1, but the Seminoles dropped their duals against UCLA and Cal by 4-1 scores. That showing doesn’t figure to help FSU’s standing in the weekly poll or its seeding when the NCAA Beach Championships roll around the first week of May.

The lower-ranked East teams – No. 15 Georgia State (0-4) and No. 17 Grand Canyon (4-8) – finished a combined 0-6. GCU only played on the first day but saw its losing streak grow to eight with defeats to UCLA and LMU, which split its four duals. The Lions’ Anna Pelloia and Jacinda Ramirez were 4-0 at the 2s and 3s, and for the second time this season were honored as the West Coast Conference pair of the week.

Cal and Hawai’i each were 2-1 in crossover duals and the Golden Bears topped the Rainbow Wahine 3-2. Taking down FSU was a noteworthy bullet point on Cal’s resume. Its 5s team of junior Ella Dreibholz and sophomore Portia Sherman went 4-0 on the weekend and improved to 14-2 overall competing on Courts 4 and 5.

Around the nation

Seventh-ranked Long Beach State (14-2) ran its winning streak to 11 with a 4-0 weekend in its competition at Long Beach City College, highlighted by a 3-2 victory over No. 11 Arizona State. The clinching point wasn’t scored until the final match, a three-set nailbiter at the 1s won by Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah over Daniella Kensinger and Anya Pemberton (15-11 in the tiebreaker). The Beach, whose only losses have been to USC and UCLA, rolled over Texas, Nebraska and Cal State Northridge by 5-0 tallies. Gementara and Hagenah earned the pair-of-the-week award from the Big West Conference.

The Sun Devils (11-3) bounced back with victories over CSUN, Pepperdine (7-7) and Texas, with the Longhorns pushing them to a 3-2 score in the second-year program’s first competitive event under Coach Stein Metzger.

The result that fans in the Lone Star State and Nebraska were eager to learn: Texas (1-3) nipped the rival Cornhuskers 3-2, with the 4s pair of Kelly McCloskey and Macey Butler clinching it with a sweep over Laney Choboy and freshman Skyler Pierce, 22-20 in the second set. Nebraska’s team, dominated by big-name indoor crossovers, concluded its season with a 16-10 record, the best in program history.

No. 9 Cal Poly (14-2) added four wins to its total on home sand in San Luis Obispo. The resurgent Mustangs galloped over UC Davis, Santa Clara, Pacific and North Florida, with only the visitors from the Sunshine State taking a match. UC Davis (8-7) fell only to the hosts in four duals. North Florida (11-7) went 2-2.

The topsy-turvy Sugar Beach Bash in Louisiana produced a 3-1 record for South Carolina (10-6), which dropped a 3-2 decision to Tulane (13-4) and defeated Boise State 4-1, Alabama-Birmingham 3-2 and Southeastern Louisiana 4-1. The Green Wave also won three out of four, the blemish being a 3-2 loss to Boise State. The Broncos  (14-7) were 3-1, including a 4-1 victory over No. 20 Tampa (9-9). The Spartans broke even in four duals, also losing to UAB, but taking victories over Houston Christian and New Orleans. UAB (10-6) was 3-1. Southern Mississippi (6-10) checked in at 2-2.

No. 18 Stetson (11-5) won all four duals in its hometown Spring Fling and has this weekend off. … Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (13-4) got what it needed during a swing through Northern California, avoiding a sweep in a 4-1 setback to host No. 3 Stanford (12-2) and beating North Florida 3-2, Utah 5-0 and host San Jose State 4-1 (in a Southland Conference meeting).

This week’s schedule

Two weekends out from the colossal Death Volley Invitational in Baton Rouge, the season’s most important competition aside from the NCAA Championship, this week’s slate features noteworthy events in Tallahassee, Fort Worth, Central California, Southern California and New Orleans.

LSU’s beach extravaganza on March 29 and 30 will include UCLA, USC, Stanford, California, Florida State, TCU and Florida Atlantic, a who’s who of power programs that project as strong contenders for NCAA bids. The Death Volley invite will be streamed on Volleyball World’s popular VBTV platform.

But first, host FSU and LSU are the marquee names in the Midseason CCSA Tournament in Tallahassee on Saturday and Sunday. The lineup also has Grand Canyon, South Carolina and Atlantic Sun Conference invitee Jacksonville. The four-member CCSA was successful in its petition to waive the six-team requirement for an automatic bid and the winner of the conference tournament (April 25-27 in Huntsville, Alabama) is guaranteed a spot in the 17-team NCAA bracket.

TCU’s Fight in the Fort on Friday and Saturday in Texas will generate numerous meaningful matchups among the Horned Frogs, Arizona State, Florida International, Washington and Florida Gulf Coast.

Sacramento and Davis in California will be the sites for the seven-team Big West Challenge, played over three days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Sacramento State’s on-campus Hornet Beach courts and at UC Davis’ venue. The Big West could land three teams in the NCAAs, so these results are significant. Long Beach State, Cal Poly, Hawai’i, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Bakersfield and the host schools comprise the field in the sprawling round-robin.

Loyola Marymount enjoys a respite from a gantlet of highly ranked opposition in the Pacific Coast Highway Open on Saturday and Sunday on its campus courts. Pepperdine and Tulane will be joined by strong Division-II programs Concordia-Irvine and Colorado Mesa. Pepperdine also will play host to PCH Open duals on Friday in Malibu.

In the Big Easy is the Southland Mid-Conference Tournament on Friday and Saturday at New Orleans’ Privateer Beach. Texas A&M Corpus Christi never has lost a regular-season Southland match. Seeking to change that are Boise State, Houston Christian, Southeastern Louisiana, Nicholls State, McNeese State and the host Privateers.

The eight-team Sun Belt Conference Midseason Tournament will be held at a neutral site in Huntsville, Alabama, on Friday and Saturday. Georgia State will look to regroup after the East Meets West, joining Coastal Carolina, North Carolina-Wilmington, Southern Mississippi, Mercer, Louisiana-Monroe, Stephen F. Austin and College of Charleston.

The Arizona Invitational in Tucson on Friday and Saturday will see the No.19 Wildcats (10-3) entertain Santa Clara, Missouri State, Utah, Texas-El Paso and NAIA member Arizona Christian.

The six teams of the Ohio Valley Conference converge Friday and Saturday in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the OVC Weekend: Tennessee-Martin, Lindenwood, Morehead State, Tennessee Tech, Eastern Illinois and the host Chattanooga Mocs.

Tampa tops the lineup in the Palm Beach Atlantic Invitational on Friday and Saturday, along with the host Sailfish, Tusculum, Spring Hill, Eckerd and Barry.

Also, USC has the weekend off but will hold a tri-dual on Tuesday at Merle Norman Stadium with Hawai’i and Concordia-Irvine. … UCLA, Stanford and California also do not play this weekend. … Florida Gulf Coast welcomes Florida Atlantic and Palm Beach Atlantic for a tri-dual on Wednesday in Fort Myers.

Photos by Will Chu and Mark Rigney on Manhattan Beach and Stephen Burns in Florida.

NCAA beach volleyball: No. 1 USC dominates in Florida, No. 2 UCLA tops East-West Volleyballmag.com.