No. 2 USC Opens 2014 at No. 1 Pepperdine
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2 0 1 4 U S C S AND V OLLEYBALL 2013 AVCA Semifinalist • 2013 AVCA Pairs Champions Kirby Burnham and Stevi Robinson 1 AVCA Team Selection • 2 AVCA All-Americans • Merle Norman Stadium For release: Mar. 7, 2014 University of Southern California Sports Information • 3501 Watt Way • HER103 • Los Angeles, Calif. • (213) 740-8480 • Fax: (213) 740-7584 Asst. Director (Women’s Sand Volleyball): Jeremy Wu • Office: (213) 740-3807 • Cell: (213) 379-3977 • E-mail: [email protected] No. 2 USC Opens 2014 at No. 1 Pepperdine SCHEDULE AND RESULTS MATCH #1 0-0 Overall • AVCA Ranking: No. 2 No. 2 USC (0-0) vs. Cal State Northridge (0-0) 0-0 Home • 0-0 Away • 0-0 Neutral Zuma Beach | Malibu, Calif. Saturday, March 8 - 11 a.m. PT TV/Web Stream: None MARCH Opponent Web: www.GoMatadors.com 8 vs. Cal State Northridge $ 11 a.m. at No. 1 Pepperdine 12 p.m. MATCH #2 13 Bakersfield 4 p.m. No. 2 USC (0-0) at No. 1 Pepperdine (0-0) 14 Florida State 12:30 p.m. Zuma Beach | Malibu, Calif. Loyola Marymount 2 p.m. Saturday, March 8 - 12 p.m. PT LMU vs. Florida State 3:30 p.m. TV/Web Stream: None UCLA vs. Florida State 5 p.m. Opponent Web: www.PepperdineSports.com 15 Pool Play (FSU, LMU, UCLA) 9 a.m. 19 vs. Arizona % 12 p.m. HT at Hawai’i 1 p.m. HT LOS ANGELES – The third time is the charm. 20 vs. Nebraska % 12 p.m. HT 21 Pool Play (UA, UH, Neb.) % 9 a.m. HT Set to open its third season, the USC women’s sand volleyball team has its sights 22 Bracket Play (UA, UH, Neb.) % 10 a.m. HT set on winning the school’s first championship. In year one, the Women of Troy sent several pairs to the AVCA championships. In 2013, USC earned its first team bid 25 Pepperdine 5 p.m. to the championship and advanced to the semifinals. Kirby Burnham (Newport 27 Cal State Northridge (P12N) 3 p.m. Beach, Calif./ Newport Harbor HS) and Stevi Robinson laid claim to the program’s Oregon (P12N) 4:30 p.m. first pairs title and were each named All-Americans. Oregon vs. CSUN 6 p.m. The Trojans start 2014 as the nation’s second-ranked team, but they are more APRIL concerned about where they finish. 3 Loyola Marymount (P12N) 1:30 p.m. “One thing that we talk about a lot is getting into the finals of the national LMU vs. UCLA (P12N) 3 p.m. championship,” said head coach Anna Collier. “The first year, we had pairs of UCLA (P12N) 4:30 p.m. teams represent us. In the second year, we went as a team and ended up third. 5 at Bakersfield 10 a.m. Now, we talk about let’s just get in the finals and then see what happens. It’s a 12 USAV Invitational (Team) # 9 a.m. journey and we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we know where we want to be at 13 USAV Invitational (Pairs) # 9 a.m. season’s end.” 19 Pac-12 Invitational (Team) * 8 a.m. 20 Pac-12 Invitational (Pairs) * 9 a.m. Last season, the Women of Troy unveiled the Merle Norman Stadium, the new on- 26 at Arizona 9 a.m. campus home of the sand volleyball program. USC went 7-3 in home matches en vs. Boise State & 11 a.m. route to a 16-8 overall record. Though the Trojans came up short in eight matches, four were 3-2 decisions that went down to the final points of the third set in the deciding match. What’s more, the Trojans’ losses in those epic battles came MAY against national champion Long Beach State four times, Pepperdine three times, 2 AVCA Championship (Team) ^ 9 a.m. CT and once to Florida State. 3 AVCA Championship (Team) ^ 9 a.m. CT 4 AVCA Championship (Pairs) ^ 9 a.m. CT Despite how close USC has come to dethroning the sport’s perennial powers, the Trojans aren’t satisfied with being close. The team is seeking change as it improves All times PST unless otherwise noted and expects to see those changes take shape this season. Bold indicates home match at Merle Norman Stadium $ at Zuma Beach | Malibu, Calif. “The biggest difference is that our freshman class has some true beach volleyball % at Queen’s Beach | Honolulu, Hawaii players,” said Collier. “In our first two seasons, we relied heavily on converted # USAV Invitational | Hermosa Beach, Calif. * Pac-12 Invitational | Santa Monica, Calif. & at Arizona Sand Volleyball Courts | Tucson, Ariz. ^ AVCA Championship | Gulf Shores, Ala. ANTICIPATED USC LINEUP PAIRING DUAL OVERALL ALL-TIME No. 1 :: Kirby Burnham / Sara Hughes 0-0 0-0 0-0 No. 2 :: Kelly Claes / Alexa Strange 0-0 0-0 0-0 No. 3 :: Sam Hirschmann / Natasa Siljkovic 0-0 0-0 8-7 No. 4 :: Bria Russ / Brooke Fournier 0-0 0-0 0-0 @USCSandVBall No. 5 :: Nicolette Martin / Allie Wheeler 0-0 0-0 0-0 2014 USC WOMEN OF TROY ## Name Ht. Yr. Hometown (Prev. School) 1 Lauren Sieckmann 5-11 So. Omaha, Neb. (Elkhorn South HS/Pepperdine) 2 Alexx Murphy 6-1 Fr. Laguna Beach, Calif. (Laguna Beach HS) 3 Bria Russ 5-9 Jr. Long Beach, Calif. (Long Beach Poly HS) 4 Natasa Siljkovic 6-3 Gr. Uzice, Serbia (School of Economy) 5 Kirby Burnham 6-2 Sr. Newport Beach, Calif. (Newport Harbor HS) 10 Brooke Fournier 5-8 Sr. Redondo Beach, Calif. (South Torrance HS/Arkansas) 11 Eve Ettinger 6-2 Jr. Santa Barbara, Calif. (Santa Barbara HS) 12 Allie Wheeler 5-11 Fr. Saratoga, Calif. (Archbishop Mitty HS) 13 Kati Duddridge 5-6 Jr. Santa Ana, Calif. (Foothill HS) 14 Sara Hughes 5-10 Fr. Costa Mesa, Calif. (Mater Dei HS) 15 Alexa Stonish 5-7 Jr. Stony Brook, N.Y. (Ward Melville HS/Stetson) 20 Sam Hirschmann 5-10 Sr. Manhattan Beach, Calif. (Marymount HS) 22 Paige Hines 5-11 Fr. Encinitas, Calif. (La Costa Canyon HS) 24 Alexa Strange 6-0 So. San Clemente, Calif. (San Clemente HS/Nebraska) 25 Mary Buckingham 6-0 Gr. Newport Beach, Calif. (Newport Harbor HS/California) 30 Kelly Claes 6-2 Fr. Placentia, Calif. (El Dorado HS) 34 Sevana Dvorak 5-9 Fr. Laguna Beach, Calif. (Laguna Beach HS) 35 Nicolette Martin 5-9 Fr. Anaheim, Calif. (Canyon HS) Head Coach Anna Collier (third year), USC ‘77 Assistant Coach Andrew Fuller (second year), Virginia Tech ‘06 Volunteer Assistant Coach Misty May-Treanor (first year), Long Beach State ‘99 Director of Operations Kylie Atherstone Strength & Conditioning Coach Chris Chase Athletic Trainer Abigail Wonnell USC HEAD COACH ANNA COLLIER PRONUNCIATION GUIDE Anna Biller Collier, who coached women’s beach volleyball teams Burnham ......................................... BURN-um in a pair of Olympics, is in her third season as USC’s first-ever head Claes .................................................... CLAYS coach of women’s sand volleyball. Collier ........................... AW-nuh CALL-ee-err Duddridge ..................... KAY-tee DUD-ridge Collier, a USC graduate, guided the Women of Troy to a 16-8 record Dvorak ................. sev-ANN-uh de-VOR-ack in 2013 and a third place finish in the team portion of the AVCA Ettinger ............................................ ET-ing-jer Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Championship. The No. 1 team Fournier ............................................ for-NEER of Kirby Burnham and Stevi Robinson won the AVCA pairs national May-Treanor ........................... MAY-TRAY-nor title and became USC’s first-ever All-Americans in the sport. Russ ................................................... BREE-uh Sieckmann .................................... SICK-men She coached USC to a 7-4 record in 2012, the sport’s inaugural Siljkovic ........ nuh-TAW-shuh SHILL-koh-vitch season as an NCAA-sponsored “emerging” sport, and sent two USC teams to the pairs Stonish ........................................... STOW-nish championship of the first AVCA pairs tourney. She has led two U.S. teams to fifth-place Olympic finishes: Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno (1996 Atlanta Games) and Annette Davis and Jenny Johnson (2000 Sydney Games). Collier has coached beach volleyball since 1990, and has worked with standouts Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, Nicole Branagh, Rachel Wacholder and Angie Akers. As head coach for the U.S. Senior A2 Beach National Team, she led teams to first and fifth place finishes at the 2012 World University Championships in Brazil. She coached U26 and U23 A2 U.S. squads at the 2010 Team FISU World University Championships in Turkey and coached the U26 U.S. squads at the 2011 championships in China. She served as coach of AVCA PRESEASON TOP 10 POLL Team USA at the 2013 Summer World University Games in Russia. Team Rec. Prev. On top of her duties, she is a USAV High Performance coach and a founding member 1 Pepperdine 0-0 1 of the USAV Beach Coaching Accreditation Program Cadre. She is currently a faculty 2 USC 0-0 4 member (teaching a variety of kinesiology classes) at Santa Monica (Calif.) Junior College, 3 Long Beach State 0-0 2 where she has spent the past 32 years. She began as the women’s cross country and track 4 Florida State 0-0 3 and field coach, and won three California State championships. 5 Hawai’i 0-0 5 6 UCLA 0-0 6 Collier played professionally on the beach for seven seasons between 1978 and 1989, and 7 Nebraska 0-0 7 posted 10 Top 10 finishes among her 20 tournament appearances. At USC (as Anna Biller) 8 Saint Mary’s College 0-0 NR she was on the track and field, volleyball, and swimming teams and was a two-time All- 9 Florida International 0-0 8 American in track as a member of the 800-meter (1975) and 400-meter (1977) relay teams.