Sept. 8, 2001

Box Score

HONOLULU, Hawai'i - With five-of-six starters hitting above .375 in the match, sixth-ranked USC defeated No. 10 Hawai'i 3-0 (30-17, 30-19, 33-31) in front of 6,728 at the Stan Sheriff Center in the second round of the Aston Imua Challenge on Friday (Sept. 7).

With only eight total hitting errors in the match, the Women of Troy hit .357 and held the Rainbow Wahine to .157.

Together, senior Jennifer Pahl (12-1-21, .524), sophomore April Ross (12-2-34, .294) and freshman Keao Burdine (14-2-32, .375) displayed another outstanding tournament performance. Pahl also tallied 10 blocks and Ross finished with 12 digs. The three were accompanied by an error-free (7-0-16, .438) performance by Alicia Robinson and a .455 effort (6-1-11) by Katie Olsovsky.

USC took the first lead in game one and never looked back. With Tracy Lindquist serving 17-12, the Trojans rattled off seven consecutive points to double the score (24-12). Ross notched the next three points for the Women of Troy with three kills and Burdine and Pahl finished the game with a kill and a block apiece.

The Trojans seemed to perform the best with Lindquist at the line. This time the Women of Troy posted six straight points and forced five Hawai'i attack errors midway through game two to take a 17-11 lead. Another pair of Pahl and Burdine blocks and kills secured the 30-19 win.

Not ready to surrender the match, the Rainbows matched USC point-for-point at the start of game three. The Trojans led by as much as five points several times before Hawai'i began to fight back thanks to the efforts of hitter Maja Gustin. Down 25-21, Gustin pounded four-consecutive kills to tie the game at 25. The Rainbows responded to each USC point and even reached match point at 30-29 but were stopped by Burdine. The USC hitter slammed the final two-of-three points to end the match.