Dec. 12, 1997

Trojans Fall to Nebraska in NCAA Regional

LONG BEACH, Calif.-- The No. 7 USC women's volleyball team fell to No. 9 Nebraska 3-2 in the Pacific Regional of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. The five setter was a hard fought match on both sides of the net with the game scores of: 13-15, 15-12, 16-14, 7-15 and 15-12.

Nebraska, who improved their record to 27-6, won the first set 15-13 backed by a powerful .304 team hitting percentage. The Trojans, who finish the season at 23-6, fought back hard in the second and third games behind the play of Jennifer Kessy and Jasmina Marinkovic, who had 22 and 18 kills in the match, respectively.

The Huskers, however, who were led by Lisa Reitsma's match-high 28 kills and Mandy Monson's 16 kills and 14 digs stormed back to take the fourth game in a seemingly easy fashion 15-7.

In the fifth and final game the Trojans showed why they were such a highly touted squad by coming together as a team and playing with their best effort. Antoinette Polk, who had a match-high 23 digs to go with 14 kills, was one of the reasons the Trojans were so hard to fight off in the final game. However, her efforts, as well as the entire teams came up short as Nebraska, who hit .333 as a team in the fifth game, proved to be too much in the 12-15 final game loss.

The Trojans hit .146 as a team in the match while the Cornhuskers hit .229 for the match.

In addition to the efforts of Kessey, Polk and Marinkovic, USC was led by janice Mounts' 16 digs and 5 kills as well as Alaina Kipps' 8 kills and .313 hitting percentage.

The Cornhuskers will face top-ranked Long Beach State, who defeated Washington in straight sets, Saturday in the Pacific Regional Final.