NCAA | As Washington volleyball travels to LA, is home court an advantage for USC?

Trojans not invincible in Los Angeles as many teams lose at home during tournament

• #3 Washington vs. #14 Kansas | December 13 | 5PM | Galen Center (USC) | ESPN3

When Washington learned it was assigned to the Los Angeles Regional this postseason, it had to expect USC would be waiting. If the favored Huskies can get past Kansas and the Trojans beat BYU, the two Pac-12 rivals will meet for the third time this season—the second time on USC’s home court.

But if history offers any lesson, home tournament teams are not invincible. Already this season, five have fallen so far, all of them among the top 16 seeds: #4 Missouri, #5 Florida, #11 Hawai’i, #15 Kentucky and #16 Duke. And USC has a history of its own.

The second round crowd in Seattle was five times as large as the crowd at USC's Galen Center
-photo by Shutter Geeks Photography

For the twelfth consecutive season, USC was named one of 16 hosts of the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. But on three of those occasions, the Trojans were upset in the second round, twice by Hawai’i, and once by Pepperdine. In 2001, USC hosted the Regionals, only to lose to Arizona in the Elite 8.

The fact that home is not always sweet in the postseason is well-known to many elite teams, including Washington. UW suffered a surprising second-round home loss to BYU in 2007, and a still-painful Elite 8 match to Nebraska the following season. The Huskies lost to California in that same round in 2010.

Last season, Washington faced a full house of passionate Nebraska partisans in a difficult Sweet 16 loss in Omaha. But one year later, the scene at USC’s Galen Center promises to be much different.

Trojan volleyball is not a big home draw in 2013, averaging 1,460 in Galen and 1,775 on the road. Last week, Troy attracted just 575 for its first-rounder against New Hampshire, and only 657 for its second round match against LA-based Cal State Northridge.

The Huskies, in fact, might have some significant support in Galen. Washington’s roster includes five Southern Californians (Carly DeHoog, Jenna Orlandini, Cassie Strickland, Bailey Tanner and Krista Vansant), another three Northern Californians (Kim Condie, Lianna Sybeldon and Melanie Wade), plus two more 2014 recruits from Orange Country (Crissy Jones and Tia Scambray). If most of those ladies attract local family and friends, the purple-and-gold contingent could be big enough to make some actual noise.

Washington and USC have been in plenty of tournament matches the past 12 seasons; Kansas and BYU not as much. UW defeated Kansas in Seattle in 2004, and lost, as we noted, at home to BYU in 2007. USC beat BYU in 2006, but has never faced Washington in the postseason. (By contrast, UW has played Stanford 5 times in the tournament. The Huskies also lost to BYU in the NCAAs in 1986 and 1996).

A summary of the four teams’ recent postseason histories. Matches marked in green are wins, those in red are tournament-ending losses:

WASHINGTON
2001
2002	Colorado St Honolulu	Hawai’i Honolulu
2003	Northwestern Seattle	Utah Seattle	Stanford Long Beach	Minnesota Long Beach
2004	Idaho Seattle	Kansas Seattle	St Mary’s Seattle	UCLA Seattle	Stanford Long Beach
2005	Siena Ft Collins	Colorado St Ft Collins	Purdue College Station	Wisconsin College Station	Tennessee San Antonio	Nebraska San Antonio
2006	Colorado St Boulder	Colorado Boulder	Ohio St Seattle	Penn St Seattle	Stanford Omaha
2007	Missouri Seattle	BYU Seattle
2008	Portland St Seattle	Santa Clara Seattle	Utah Seattle	Nebraska Seattle
2009	No Colorado Ft Collins	Colorado St Ft Collins
2010	Michigan Seattle	Hawai’i Seattle	Nebraska Seattle	California Seattle
2011	W. Michigan Minneapolis	Minnesota Minneapolis
2012	C. Arkansas Seattle	Hawai’i Seattle	Nebraska Omaha
2013	Alabama St Seattle	LSU Seattle	Kansas Los Angeles

KANSAS
2001
2002
2003	Long Beach St Malibu	Pepperdine Malibu
2004	Santa Clara Seattle	Washington Seattle
2005	UCLA Los Angeles
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012	Cleveland St Lawrence	Wichita St Lawrence
2013	Wichita St Lawrence	Creighton Lawrence	Washington Los Angeles

BYU
2001	Utah St Logan
2002
2003	New Mexico St Las Cruces	Hawai’i Honolulu
2004
2005	Pepperdine Los Angeles
2006	UCSB Los Angeles	USC Los Angeles
2007	Ole Miss Charlotte	Washington Seattle	Mid Tennessee University Park	Penn St University Park
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012	New Mexico St Provo	Oklahoma Provo	Oregon Omaha
2013	Arizona St Honolulu	Hawai’i Honolulu	USC Los Angeles

SOUTHERN CAL
2001	Liberty Durham	Duke Durham	Ohio St Los Angeles	Arizona Los Angeles
2002	San Diego Los Angeles	Texas A&M Los Angeles	Michigan St Santa Barbara	Pepperdine Santa Barbara	Florida New Orleans	Stanford New Orleans
2003	New Hampshire Los Angeles	Loyola MMount Los Angeles	Texas A&M Lincoln	UCLA Lincoln	Minnesota Dallas	Florida Dallas
2004	Coll Charleston Los Angeles	Kansas St Los Angeles	San Diego Louisville	Nebraska Louisville	Minnesota Long Beach
2005	UCSB Los Angeles	Pepperdine Los Angeles
2006	Ole Miss Los Angeles	BYU Los Angeles	Hawai’i Honolulu
2007	Pepperdine Los Angeles	Long Beach St Los Angeles	St John’s Gainesville	Texas Gainesville	Stanford Sacramento
2008	San Diego Los Angeles	Hawai’i Los Angeles
2009	Oklahoma Los Angeles	Hawai’i Los Angeles
2010	New Mexico Los Angeles	San Diego Los Angeles	Indiana Dayton	Stanford Dayton	California Kansas City
2011	Yale Los Angeles	Tulsa Los Angeles	Hawai’i Honolulu	Pepperdine Honolulu	Illinois San Antonio
2012	Fairfield Los Angeles	St Mary’s Los Angeles	Wichita St Austin	Texas Austin
2013	New Hampshire Los Angeles	CS Northridge Los Angeles	BYU Los Angeles

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Photos courtesy Shutter Geeks Photography