Bricio Volleys Way to China
It’s a good week for Trojan athlete Samantha Bricio.
Bricio, an All-American on the USC women’s volleyball team, has joined the Pac-12 All-Star team on its trip to China.
The team will play seven matches over two weeks in Sanming and Beijing, facing a professional team from Fujian Province and the Chinese Junior National Team from June 18 to 21. The team will then play a pro team from Beijing and the Chinese Junior National Team from June 24 to 26.
Bricio arrived in China on June 17 along with team members from all universities in the Pac-12. When the team is not competing on the court, it will visit the Great Wall of China, Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City and the Silk Market. Last year, USC was represented on the All-Star team by head coach Mick Haley, All-American Natalie Hagglund and senior Hayley Crone.
The psychology major at USC Dornsife is originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. The youngest ever to play for Mexico’s Senior National Team as a 16-year-old, she helped guide Mexico’s Youth National Team to a silver medal at the 2010 NORCECA Youth Championships.
In the 2010 NORCECA Youth Championship, she scored a match-high 29 points match and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Mexico’s finish earned a berth into the 2011 Girl’s Youth World Championships.
Bricio played on both the Mexican youth and junior national teams in 2011, receiving the Best Scorer Award at the Youth Pan-American Cup and earning Best Scorer honors at the Junior Pan-American Cup.
She helped Mexico to a fourth-place finish at the junior tournament and a silver-medal at the youth tournament. Bricio was named Top Scorer at the 2013 Pan-American Cup in Lima, Peru, where she tallied 85 kills, 16 service aces and six blocks over the course of five matches (107.0 points).
At USC, she has collected many honors for her volleyball skills.
In 2012, Bricio started all 36 matches as a freshman and played in all but one of USC’s 122 sets. She was an AVCA All-America honorable mention and was chosen to the AVCA All-Pacific Region Team as the Pacific Region Freshman of the Year.
She was honored as the Volleyball Magazine Freshman of the Year and selected to the Volleyball Magazine All-America Third Team. She was also named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and selected for Pac-12 All-Conference honors as well as the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.
Bricio was named the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week (Oct. 9, 2012), USC’s first freshman to earn the award since April Ross in 2000. The same week, she was named National Player of the Week by NCAA.com and Collegiate Volleyball Update.
She was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week a record five times and became the league’s first-ever freshman Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week (Oct. 8, 2012).