Trojans ready for national semi-finals in San Antonio – 2011 NCAA tournament
The University of Southern California (USC) clawed its way into the Final Four round of 2011 NCAA tournament by defeating Hawaii and Pepperdine last week. In the next run, the USC Trojans are set to compete for the national finals spot but before that, they will be required to overcome the Fighting Illini of Illinois University in the semi-final match, which is set to take place on Thursday, December 15 in Alamodome, San Antonio. Elsewhere, teams from UCLA and Florida State will also be battling to qualify for the final showdown of the 2011 NCAA tournament in the other semi-final match on the same day.
USC is nationally ranked No. 1, whereas it is seeded No. 7 in the NCAA Tournament. The Trojans have won 12 straight matches and 24 of its last 25 matches in the regular season. The team is making its 34th postseason appearance since the inception of the USC volleyball program in 1976. This time, they are up to seize their seventh national title. In the past, the Women of Troy (USC) got hold of the title trophy in 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 2002 and 2003.
The USC Trojans worked out a consistent performance in the previous years and made 21st consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2011. On the whole, they have a win/loss record of 67-24 in NCAA tournament.
Alex Jupiter, freshman Hannah Schraer, Natalie Hagglund are the top guns in USC’s quad. The trio is likely to display incredible effort to win against Fighting Illini in the next match on Thursday.
Now let’s take a glance at the 3rd-seeded Illinois team, which is up to challenge the Trojans in semi-final contest. Fighting Illini are not a weak opponent. They currently stand with an overall record of 31-4, which means they have lost only four matches in 2011. They demonstrated a stellar performance at the regional round of the NCAA tournament and caused elimination to Ohio State and Florida. They entered the Final Four for the first time since 1988, which is a long break. It seems that they certainly would not like to waste the opportunity to go into the finals. This is a clear signal for Trojans to be prepared for a great semi-final match.
The senior outside hitter Michelle Bartsch will be the point of focus for Trojans as she averaged 3.83 kills per set and totalled 513 kills for Illini on the year. Senior outside hitter Colleen Ward is another scoring machine of Illini with 496 kills (3.70 kill per set). As far as the overall performance of Illini is concerned, they have a 13.75 kills per set and 2.59 blocks per set average, with a hitting percentage of .262 as a team. Hence, it will surely be an interesting encounter between Illinois and University of Southern California.
Last time, the USC and Illinois crossed their ways in 2004 when Fighting Illini overpowered USC. The all-time series between the two teams is tied at 2-2. USC defeated Illinois in the only post-season meeting in the 1985 NCAA regional semi-final in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Check us out tomorrow to find out the winner of the match.
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