Dec. 3, 2010

Final Stats

LOS ANGELES - Junior All-America outside hitter Alex Jupiter (Paris, France/Redondo Union HS) led with 16 kills and hit .464 (16-3-28) as the No. 6 seeded USC Women of Troy swept the New Mexico Lobos (25-19, 25-8, 25-18) in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament. USC hit .330 in the match to sweep New Mexico for the second time this season (Sept. 3 in Honolulu).

Kendall Bateman had 42 assists and six digs for USC (26-4) as the Trojans used 10 service aces in the match, including eight in the first set, to set the tempo. Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Falyn Fonoimoana registered 13 kills with six digs and two blocks while senior Geena Urango started for the Trojans and rolled up four aces in the first set.

Lisa Meeter led New Mexico (20-10) with nine kills and five digs while Ashley Rhoades and Kelly Williamson posted five kills each for the Lobos.

Meeter gave UNM the 10-8 lead in the first set before USC took the lead on a 7-1 run. After the Lobos took their last timeout of the set with a 17-12 deficit, Jupiter came out with a solo block in the middle for another Trojan point. Two straight blocks by the Lobos made it 23-18 in favor of USC, but Jupiter finished off the set with another kill.

The Women of Troy came out with full force in the second set, scoring six straight for the 12-4 score. Jupiter used back-to-back kills, followed by Fonoimoana's ace to lead, 16-5. Jupiter's kill started another streak of six points as USC hit .552 (17-1-29) to take a 2-0 lead in the match heading into the intermission.

Down 4-2 early in the third, USC countered with a 10-3 run to lead by five at 12-7. Back-to-back errors by the Lobos and a Lauren Williams kill put the Women of Troy ahead by 10, 19-9. The Lobos cut the deficit to five at 20-15, but Fonoimoana sent the Trojans into the second round with a shot to the back corner.

USC will face San Diego in second-round action tomorrow at 5 p.m. with a live video webcast courtesy of usctrojans.com. San Diego swept Long Beach State in first-round action Friday (25-22, 30-28, 25-19). Amy DeGroot led the Toreros with 17 kills and 15 digs.

Notes: USC is making its 20th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance...USC has not lost a first-round match in the NCAA Tournament since 1989...15 of USC's 26 wins this season have come by the way of a 3-0 sweep...USC is now 65-8 all-time at the Galen Center...with 465 kills on the season, Alex Jupiter moved into 10th place on USC's single-season list as she passed Katie Haller (464 kills in 1993)...Kendall Bateman now has 1,385 assists this season, moving her into fifth place on USC's single-season list as she passed Monika Cavaliere (1,379 in 1994)...tonight was the fourth time this season that USC has recorded 10 or more service aces in the match...the Women of Troy's best serving came on Aug. 28 with 12 aces against Bucknell...Geena Urango tied her career high with four aces tonight, the third time she had done that in her career...Falyn Fonoimoana tied her season high for aces (two for the sixth time this season) and blocks (four for the third time).

UNM	  19- 8-18
USC	  25-25-25
Records: USC (26-4), New Mexico (20-10)
Kills: Alex Jupiter 16 (USC), Lisa Meeter 9 (UNM)
Team:	UNM	USC
1	.150	.088
2	.062	.552
3	.132	.378
Match	.111	.330 

New Mexico-USC postmatch quotes

USC head coach Mick Haley
"I think New Mexico is a lot better then what they were able to play tonight, I think really they're a good team. I thought we really got on them with our serving early. I really think that was in essence the reason we got up so quickly and were able to exploit a couple things. I was really proud of our team executing the game plan the way we talked about and I'm looking forward to a chance to play San Diego tomorrow night."

On USC's Defense
"I think our serving took away some of their options. They have been so good in the last half of the season in serve receive and used a two-person serve receive pattern. Geena's (Urango) here because her top spin serve really hurt them tonight. She had 4 aces tonight but also she kept them in real trouble in terms of getting the ball to the setter so the setter could be a viable option for attack so at that point, they were down to two hitters and many times one hitter and our block was able to get over and double down on them. They really didn't get much of a chance to show what they could really do and get in rhythm. We hoped that would happen. Alex (Jupiter) did really well. Geena did really well and Falyn did really well with their top spins and we tried to match them up against their two-passer rotations. We were able to get those and whether it was the top spin serve or not I don't know but they all have pretty good velocity. The fact that we were able to get ahead and keep the heat on them I thought was the advantage."

"I thought Falyn (Fonoimoana) did a good job blocking behind. It helped us to know their players a little bit. We were a little more comfortable coming out to start with and maybe we will be again tomorrow night against San Diego."

USC senior Geena Urango
"We had watched how their serve receive patterns were a little bit different than other teams that we've played and we knew that top spin would be able to exploit that so we used that to our advantage."

USC junior Kendall Bateman
(on motivation for tomorrow after losing in the second round the past two seasons) "I think you take it like every other game we've been playing this season. It's a little different team this year. We have a new freshman class that's been doing a great job. Just play like we've been playing it will be a tough match, but if we play like we've been playing it will be a good match."