April (3) 2022 Candygrams

Friday, April 22, 2202---Women of Troy Beach Volleyball Senior Salute

Trojan Candy and my husband Jim arrived early at the Merle Norman Stadium for the Beach Volleyball (BVB) Senior Salute. As soon as I put my things down in the stands, Trojan Candy began taking pictures. The BVB Senior Salute would be after our match vs the Bruins.

I saw two friends first. Ray Wong and Terrell Woods are both photographers, like yours truly. Sometimes Ray sends me his pictures and I post them in my blog trojancandy.com. Ray and Terrell volunteer for USC and give their pictures to the USC website.

Next, I took pictures of friend SID Jeremy Wu and USC sports announcer Leland Waters. Photographers Jenny Chuang and Gage Masterson stood behind Jeremy and Leland.

Trojan Candy noticed our new scoreboard next.

Players on the three courts were announced. The scores on only Courts 1 and 2 would count in the dual match.

The players on Court 2 were our Junior twins, Nicole (2/21/2020) and Audrey Norse (2/21/2020).

The twins scored another point.

Our twins beat the Bruins 21-17 and 21-14 in sets 1 and 2 respectively for our first point. Here is my video of Audrey and Nicole shaking hands at the end of the match.

On Court 1, our #4 Sammy Slater (2/22/2018) and #22 Megan Kraft (2/26/2022) were ready for the serve.

Megan and Sammy celebrate a good play. They beat the Bruins in two sets, 22-20 and 21-9 for a 2-0 lead in the dual match.

On Court 3 was an exhibition match. #2 Shannon Scully and #10 Caroline Schafer were waiting for the serve.

These two pictures show good plays by Caroline and Shannon. They lost to the Bruins in two sets by 19-21 and 16-21.

The scoreboard at the end of the first flight.

Now, in the second flight of the match, at Court 1, #13 Hailey Harward (2/21/2022) and #14 Tina Graudina (2/26/2022) shook hands with their opponents before their match.

Hailey and Tina hugged each other before play began.

Hailey and Tina are ready to receive a serve.

They celebrate after winning a point.

Hailey and Tina were elated when they beat the Bruins in two sets 21-17 and 21-10 to clinch the match at 3-0.

On Court 2, #23 Delaynie Maple (2/26/2022) and #25 Julia Scoles were ready to play.

Here is a point Delaynie and Julia scored against the Bruins.

Delaynie and Julie console one another after losing to the Bruins in a close third set, 18-21, 21-13 and 20-22.

At Court 3, #3 Sunny Villapando and #21 Mollie Ebertin shook hands with their Bruin opponents before the match started.

At the net, Mollie jumped high to block the ball.

Sunny was getting ready to set the ball for Mollie.

Unfortunately, Sunny and Mollie were defeated in a tough match versus the Bruins 14-21, 21-12 and 10-15.

However, our Women of Troy beat the Bruins 3-2!

This is what it looks like to beat the Bruins!

Tina Graudina tells the Bruins to “Take That!”

Now, it was time for the Senior Salute. Trojan Candy took this picture of our Women of Troy Beach Volleyball Seniors and Graduates.

The rest of the team was ready to award the bouquets to their teammates.

Jim took these two videos of the ceremony.

Here are our Graduates posing with Head Coach Dain Blanton.

Next, Trojan Candy took several pictures of individual graduates. Here is Tina Graudina.

Graduate Sammy Slater posed with BVB Alumna Joy Dennis (3/2/2017).

Hailey Harward posed for Trojan Candy in this picture.

Then Hailey gave me a “Fight On” with her partner Tina Graudina.

Shannon Scully posed with her brother Tommy and parents Tom and Karil.

Sunny Villapando, a friend, freelance photographer Jenny Chuang, and Julia Scoles posed for me next.

Caroline Schafer and her mom Barb Brawner posed for me nearby.

Graduates Paige Hammons and Shannon Scully smiled for Trojan Candy for this picture.

A friend, Julia Scoles, and Hailey Harward smiled for this picture.

Sammy Slater posed with her mom Bailey and dad Michael.

Trojan Candy was able to take this picture of Graduate Paige Dreeuws.

Head Coach Dain Blanton smiled for my picture of him with Emily Hansen.

Beach Volleyball undergrads and grads posed at the net for this picture. From left to right were Ava Gallien, Audrey Nourse, Tina Graudina, Delaynie Maple, Julia Scoles, Megan Kraft, Hailey Harward, Nicole Nourse, and Olivia Bakos.

The same Beach Volleyball undergrads posed for this group picture with two graduates. From left to right were Nicole Nourse, Ava Gallien, Audrey Nourse, Olivia Bakos, friend, Sunny Villapando, and Sammy Slater.

Three graduate friends, Tina Graudina, Sammy Slater, and Mollie Ebertin, smiled for Trojan Candy.

Delaynie Maple and Sunny Villapando hugged and smiled for yours truly.

My last picture of the memorable day was of my twin friends Audrey and Nicole Nourse posing with Julia Scoles.

What a victorious jam-packed day! Every TROJAN DAY should be this glorious!

FIGHT ON, FOREVER!