Both the international pro-beach and NCAA-men’s indoor seasons opened in earnest on Tuesday.
In The Hague in the Netherlands, April Ross and new partner Alix Klineman got 2018 off to a good start by winning twice in country-quota matches in the Dela Beach Open.
And in Los Angeles, USC beat visiting Princeton in four sets.
FIVB Hague: The event, of course, is on the sand but indoors. Ross and Klineman opened with a 21-16, 21-13 win over Betsi Flint and Kelley Larsen and then knocked off Brittany Hochevar and Emily Day 15-21, 21-10, 15-8 to reach the main draw.
Click here for the FIVB account that includes interviews and photos.
Three other USA women’s teams are in action Wednesday but were waiting to see who they would play: Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross, Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes and Lauren Fendrick and Karissa Cook awaited.
USA men were also in action. In an early Wednesday match, Trevor Crabb and Sean Rosenthal got past South Africans Grant Goldschmidt and Leo Williams 12-21, 21-13, 15-9.
Two other American teams were to face each other Wednesday when Reid Priddy and Jeremy Casebeer played Bill Kolinske and Miles Evans.
Click here for the complete schedule and all of Wednesday’s results.
USC 3, Princeton 1: The Trojans of the MPSF beat the visitors from the EIVA 28-26, 25-22, 25-27, 25-22 in the first meeting ever between the programs.
Jack Wyatt, back from a two-year layoff, led USC with 20 kills. The junior outside also had nine digs. Gianluca Grasso had 18 kills and four aces. And freshman Sam Lewis had 11 kills in 14 errorless swings to hit .786. Ryan Moss added 11 kills.
Princeton got 20 kills and four blocks from George Huhmann and Parker Dixon had 14 kills and seven digs.
USC heads to Hawai’i and plays Juniata on Thursday, Stevens Institute on Friday and Hawai’i on Saturday.
Princeton goes to Santa Barbara on Friday where it plays both Long Beach State and Stanford.
