USC women’s volleyball begins first Big Ten season at Pepperdine – Annenberg Media

The USC women’s volleyball team will face the Pepperdine Waves on Friday and Saturday in Malibu, their first games as members of the Big Ten Conference. Last season, the Trojans finished 19-13 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

With the Trojans playing in a new league, head coach Brad Keller has adjusted certain aspects of how the Trojans practice and play. However, Keller was fortunate to have more players available this offseason than last year, making the transition easier.

“We have rebuilt our entire system, we are playing a completely different style of volleyball than last year,” Keller said. “It took a lot of time, but at the moment I like the result you see out there.”

USC’s newly assembled system will face a Pepperdine team that went 19-9 and 15-1 in WCC play last season. The Waves earned their conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament but lost in the first round to Dayton in Pullman, Washington. With Pepperdine having played in four of the last five NCAAs under head coach Scott Wong, Keller knows the Trojans will have their hands full this weekend against the Waves.

“Scott Wong and (his) staff at Pepperdine do a great job every year,” Keller said. “There’s a reason they’re in the tournament, there’s a reason they keep winning their conference, there’s a reason this is happening. So this team is going to be an NCAA tournament team and maybe even a multi-seed team. We’re conscious of that and excited for the opportunity.”

Despite the challenge Pepperdine presents for USC, veteran setter Mia Tuaniga is confident in her teammates’ abilities to step up and contribute to the team’s success this year.

“I think the team is different because we have more people taking on different roles and more people coming into leadership positions, which I think is great,” Tuaniga said. “We’re starting to grow as a program, we’re starting to grow as individuals, which is really nice.”

Outside hitter Ally Batenhorst, who transferred from Nebraska after three seasons with the Cornhuskers, knows the Big Ten well and hopes to help her teammates adjust to playing against conference opponents she is already familiar with.

“It’s a very different conference and the best volleyball conference in the country,” Batenhorst said of the Big Ten’s reputation in volleyball. “And there’s going to be a lot of different teams and I think being able to experience those games and that pressure will really help me lead the team.”

As USC prepares for its first games as a Big Ten member, Keller praised his staff’s experience working for Big Ten programs, which has helped make the transition smoother, as technical coordinator Virgina Pham and assistant head coaches Tyler Hildebrand and Spencer McLachlin are quite familiar with the Midwest-based conference and its reach in terms of travel and hotels.

Pham spent two years as director of operations at Penn State, while Hildebrand was at Nebraska before joining the Trojans and McLachlin brought his talents from Indiana.

Hildebrand and McLachlin have already stayed true to their roots in recruiting; Batenhorst is a prime example of that. He came from Nebraska and transferred to USC along with skilled outside hitter Grae Gosnell after four years at Indiana.

Regardless of how this opening weekend goes for USC, Keller knows the game against Pepperdine will help coaches gauge the Trojans’ progress as they prepare to compete in the new league.

“At the end of the day, it’s a long season, whether you win or lose the first game,” Keller said. “So it’s going to be very valuable for us to figure out where we actually are, where we need to be and how we get there, kind of a roadmap, a first test.”

The Trojans begin their season on Friday at 6 p.m. in Pepperdine, with a rematch against the Waves the following evening at the same time.