• USC tops Florida State 3-0 for national title

GULF SHORES, Ala.— The second-seeded University of Southern California beach volleyball team defeated top seed Florida State, 3-0, in the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship Sunday at The Hangout in Gulf Shores. The Women of Troy’s victory avenged an early-season loss to the Seminoles who were ranked No.1 most of the season. The victory also stretched the USC women’s match winning streak to 30.

“This means a lot for USC, and the winning tradition that the university has,” said USC coach Anna Collier. “This is big to set the foundation for the future of beach volleyball at USC.”

Florida State University coach Brooke Niles gave credit to the Trojans’ level of play.

 “I think we played hard today against USC, but I believe they played more aggressive than us today. This just means that the beach volleyball world needs to look out for Florida State in the future.”

The Trojans (34-2) were led overall by junior All-Americans Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes who were named the NCAA all-tournament team No. 1 pair. Allie Wheeler finished with with a team high 20 kills. FSU (32-3) was led by Sierra Sanchez with 17 kills in the final.

Sanchez looked on the bright side.

“This is tough, but we still made history,” she said. “It just gives us more motivation for the future.”

USC cruised to the title match with wins over Georgia State (3-0), Pepperdine (3-0) and FSU (3-1).

Florida State defeated Stetson 3-0 and Hawaii 3-2 before falling to USC 3-1. FSU then advanced to the finals with a 3-0 win over UCLA in semifinal elimination-bracket play. Vanessa Fraire led the Seminoles with a match-high 21 kills against the Bruins.

2016 All-Tournament Team:

No. 1 Pair: Southern California

#14 Sara Hughes

#3 Kelly Claes

No. 2 Pair: Arizona

#1 Jianna Bonomi

#10 Katarina Schulz

No. 3 Pair: Hawaii

#3 Ginger Long

#10 Mikayla Tucker

No. 4 Pair: UCLA

#5 Zana Muno

#55 Jessyka Ngauamo 

No. 5 Pair: Southern California

#25 Jo Kremer

#33 Zoe Nightingale

Total Attendance: Championship Day: 1,890. Championship Weekend: 5,915. The USC beach team also won the final non-NCAA title (2015 AVCA).