#4 LMU vs #5 USC 5-3-2025 BVB Second Round
Dear Readers~
Welcome to the second blog covering the 2025 NCAA National Championships that took place on May 2nd to May 4th in Gulf Shores, Alabama. In the previous blog I covered the first-round matchup between #1 UCLA and #16 UTC but this time I'll be covering the second round (also the quarterfinal) matchup between #4 LMU (Loyola Marymount University) and #5 USC (University of Southern California). USC is also your 4-time National Champion, winning it every year since 2021 (with Dain Blanton as head coach) as well as in 2016 and 2017 (with Anna Collier as head coach). Will USC keep their streak alive or will LMU beat them and be one game closer to the national finals? Let's get into this game to find out.
First up, let's see this coaching staff. As mentioned, USC's head coach is Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Dain Blanton while the head assistant coach is Gustavo Rocha, and the assistant coach is Emily Bowman. Not only did Blanton win gold in 2000 but four years later for Athens 2004, he returned and became the first two-time male athlete for the sport (the sport debuted in Atlanta in 1996) but had a different partner. Rocha not only coaches at USC but he also coaches USC alumni and professional beach volleyball players Kelly Chang and Sarah Hughes for both domestic and international beach volleyball games and even coached the pair at Paris 2024 where they got a fifth-place tie after they advance to the quarterfinal round. Rocha also coached USC Alumni Tina Graudina and Anastassija Kravcenoka (Samoilova) as they played for Latvia during the Tokyo Olympics and lost in the bronze medal match. With Bowman being fairly new to coaching USC (this is only her second season doing so), she's got some time to earn a few titles like Blanton and Rocha but what she did as a player was help USC win back-to-back national titles in 2022 as a graduate student playing for USC. Going into the National Championships, USC has a record of 26-10 and a streak of 1 loss due to losing to Stanford in the MPSF conference Championships but they made up for it by beating #12 North Florida in the first round of the National championships.
Let's meet the LMU coaches and see what stats they have accumulated so far. The head coach is John Mayer, the head assistant coach and recruiting coordinator is Cesar Benatti, and the assistant coach is Angela White. Mayer recently finished his 10th season being the head beach coach at LMU after a previous four seasons as the assistant indoor coach. The name may sound familiar because he played on the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) from 2003 to 2018 and won his first AVP stop in 2009 and his most recent one in 2016. Benatti just finished his second season at LMU after spending 9 seasons coaching beach volleyball at California State University Bakersfield (with the last 6 as the head coach) along with spending many of those same seasons as the assistant indoor volleyball coach. White just finished her second season coaching at LMU. After playing both indoor and beach professionally, White has a lot of experience. From 2013 to 2018 she played on the AVP and even though she didn't have any first place finishes, she did get four second place finishes in her 6 seasons and was even partnered with previously mentioned Sarah Hughes on the AVP for a time. With Mayer, Benatti, and White all being former players, you can see why LMU is as good as they are. Going into the National Championships, LMU has a record of 34-6 after beating Santa Clara to win the WCC Championships along with a win streak of 7, since last losing to USC, but after beating Florida Atlantic in round 1, that streak expanded from 7 to 8.
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 LMU taking on USC in this second-round matchup of the 2025 NCAA Beach Volleyball National Championships.
This game will go in the order of who finished, so up first we have the 3's, or the third best pair on each team. This had USC's Maya Gessner and Mabyn Thomas taking on LMU's Lisa Luini and Abbey Thorup. The first set ended 21-17 while the second set ended 21-18, both in favor of LMU and giving LMU a 1-0 lead over USC. The next pair to finish was the 5's, or the fifth best pair of each team. This game had USC's Madison Goellner and Kaileigh Truslow against LMU's Giuliana Poletti Corrales and Tanon Rosenthal. The first set ended 22-20 (remember that the first two sets end at 21 but a two point lead is required) while the second set ended 21-16, both in favor of LMU and giving them a 2-0 lead over USC. The next game to finish was the 4's, or the fourth best pair of each team, which had USC's Delaney Karl and Ella Larkin against LMU's Magdalena Rabitsch and Isabelle Reffel. The first set ended 21-15 in favor of LMU while the second set ended 21-14 in favor of USC and causing a third set. The third set ended at 15-9 in favor of USC and making the overall score 2-1 in favor of LMU. The next game to finish was the 1's, or the top pair of each team. This had USC's Zoey Henson and Madison White against LMU's Anna Pelloia and Michelle Shaffer. The first set ended 21-13 in favor of LMU while the second set ended 21-14 in favor of USC and causing a third set. The third set ended at 15-7 in favor of LMU and giving LMU the 3-1 victory needed to move on. The 2's, or the second best pair of each team, didn't finish their game since LMU won the required 3 games before they could finish. This game went to three sets as well. The first set ended at 21-19 in favor of LMU, 21-12 in favor of USC is how the second set ended, and the third set ended at 7-2 in favor of LMU before the game of the 1's caused theirs to end unfinished.
That concludes today's coverage of round 2, or the quarterfinals as LMU called it. LMU would go on to play UCLA for one of the semifinals that I will be covering next week, so stay tuned for that or to see who the other semifinal matchup will include. Withe LMU knocking out 4 time in a row national champion USC, that only leaves UCLA as the only national champion left. Will LMU repeat their victory next week? Tune in next time as #4 LMU battles #1 UCLA and until then, Miller out
~J. Miller
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