#5 Stanford vs #6 USC 4-12-2025 BVB

 Dear Readers~

    Welcome to today's blog covering 2025 NCAA Division 1 Beach Volleyball. Today's blog will cover USC (University of Southern California) taking on Stanford. This game took place at the Center of Effort Challenge in San Luis Obispo, California hosted by California Polytechnic, or Cal Poly for short.

    These teams have played each other a few times so far this season. The first time was in Hawaii to start the season back in February where Stanford beat USC 3-2 at the Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic. The next time they would play each other would be at the MPSF Midseason Rumble a few weeks later at Stanford, where USC would come out on top with a final score of 3-2. The third and most recent time they've played each other this season was in Laguna Beach, California for the Best in the West, where USC won 4-1. With USC winning twice and Stanford winning once, who do you think will win this matchup? Will Stanford tie it with each team winning twice or will USC win three meetups in a row? Let's get into today's game to find out.

    For those who don't know, NCAA and Professional Beach Volleyball have the winner determined a little differently. In both sports the pair who wins has to win 2 sets whether it be by winning both sets, first to 21 in this case, or by winning 2 of the 3 sets, with the first two sets playing to 21 and the third playing to 15, with all three requiring a lead of 2 points or more when the set is finished. In the pros once a pair win their two sets, they have won the game and move on in the bracket, but NCAA is a little different, just because you've won two of your sets doesn't always mean you've won the game. In order for your school to win in NCAA your school has to win at least 3 of the 5 games they have going on against the other school. By that I mean each time a school plays against each other, they have their top 5 pairs playing each other and in order to win your school has to have at least 3 of your pairs beating 3 pairs of your opponents. Now let's get into the game of Stanford taking on USC in Coastal California.

    Going into the game, USC had 2 wins while Stanford had 2 wins of their own. USC beat host Cal Poly as well as Florida State while Stanford also beat Cal Poly and Florida State. As for the season, Stanford was 22-7 while USC was 22-6. With USC coming off of 7 wins in a row and Stanford coming off of 5 wins in a row (and their last loss to USC in Laguna Beach, CA), let's get into this game to see who came out victorious in coastal California.

    The five games will go in order of who finished first, so starting us off is the 3's, or the third best pair of each team. This game had USC's Delaney Karl and Ella Larkin taking on Stanford's Charlotta Bell and Kelly Belardi. The first set ended at 21-12 in favor of Stanford while the second set ended at 21-16, also in favor of Stanford and giving Stanford at 1-0 lead over USC. The second game to finish was the 5's, or the fifth best pair on each team. This game had USC's Macy Bolyard and Madison Goellner taking on Stanford's Daria Gusarova and Clara Stowell. The first set ended 21-17 in favor of Stanford while the second set ended 21-19, also in favor of Stanford and giving Stanford a 2-0 lead over USC. The third game to finish was the 4's or the fourth best pair of each team. This game had USC's Maya Gessner and Mabyn Thomas against Stanford's Chloe Hoffman and Logan Tusher. The first set ended 21-17 in favor of Stanford while the second set ended 21-9 in favor of Stanford and giving Stanford the 3 game win needed to claim victory over USC. But for fun, let's see how the top 2 pairs of each school played. The next to finish is the 2's, or the second-best pair of each school. This game had USC's Kennedy Coakley and Ashley Pater taking on Stanford's Avery Jackson and Brooke Rockwell. The first set ended 22-20 (remember that the first two sets go to 21 but you need a lead of 2 points or more to win) in favor of USC while the second set ended 21-12 also in favor of USC. The final game to finish was the 1's, or the top pair of each team. This game had USC's Zoey Henson and Madison White taking on Stanford's Ruby Sorra and Taylor Wilson. The first set ended 21-18 in favor of Stanford while the second set ended 21-16 in favor of USC and causing a third set. The third set ended 15-11 in favor of USC and giving USC 2 wins compared to Stanford's 3 wins.

Week 7 of the 2025 NCAA coaches poll still has TCU at #1 while Stanford sits at #5 and USC at #6. Don't forget to follow the NCAA over on Instagram as we get closer to the National Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama: @ncaavolleyball

USC's game day post for the match up against Stanford they put on their Instagram. Give them a follow over on that platform to see how they end their 2025 season and try to continue being national champions come May: @uscbeach

Stanford's game day post they put on their Instagram for the big game against USC. Don't forget to give them a follow over on that platform to see how their season ends: @stanfordbeachvb

Stanford put this on their Instagram in honor of the 3-2 win over USC

    After losing to Stanford, USC would go on to beat Loyola Marymount University (LMU) while Stanford would go on to lose to UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) to finish the tournament. This concludes my coverage of the game between USC and Stanford that took place in San Luis Obispo, California as part of the Center of Effort Challange hosted by Cal Poly. The next tournament for both is the MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) Championship at the Newland Beach courts in Huntington Beach, California, just southeast of Long Beach and Los Angeles. After that tournament, it's time for the National Championships in Orange Beach, Alabama. Stay tuned for the next game as I cover the final blog of the 2025 NCAA season before getting into the championship games. If there's a game or sport you'd like me to cover next, let me know and until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller