SAN DIEGO — As her players arrange themselves for the photo, Jennifer Petrie can't help but laugh. In full uniform, with the Pacific Ocean at their backs on a picture-perfect San Diego afternoon ahead of their annual beach photoshoot, her Torero volleyball team is jockeying for position atop a park bench overlooking Sunset Cliffs, and time is running out. Sophomore defensive specialist Anna Jaworowski has two minutes and counting to get a picture for the popular app "BeReal," which prompts users at random each day to take a picture of what they're doing to…well, be more real, and the veteran head coach has been entrusted to get one that has the entire team in it. As the clock winds down, Petrie snaps the photo, delighting her 18 scholar-athletes when her smiling face fills the selfie camera's section of the digital keepsake.

These days, there's a lot to smile about for San Diego volleyball.
 

TAKE THE ROSTER, FOR EXAMPLE. 2021 All-WCC First Team selections Annie Benbow and Katie Lukes are back for a fifth season, with the former characterizing the decision to exercise their final year of eligibility as "the best decision I've ever made," before the latter emphasizes that there's no place like home (home in this case being the Jenny Craig Pavilion, where the pair have helped steer the Toreros to nearly one-fifth of the program's all-time NCAA Tournament appearances).

Back is 6-foot-5 opposite/setter Grace Frohling, who impressed so thoroughly in 2021 that she earned a second invite to train with the U.S. Women's Collegiate National Team in the offseason. Also returning for year two in San Diego is middle blocker Leyla Blackwell, the former La Jolla High School standout who earned West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors on three occasions last season before finishing the year as the league's most fearsome defender.

"I knew that this year, we were gonna have our best team yet," adds Lukes, who reached an NCAA Regional Semifinal with USD in 2018.

And that's not to mention the firepower Petrie brought in via the transfer portal.

"Having key players come into your program, learning how we operate quickly is a challenge," the 24th-year head coach says of her offseason additions. "But we're very fortunate…when you're coming from high-level programs, it's very easy to adjust and make an impact right away."

High-level programs, indeed. Graduate setter Gabby Blossom led the charge of transfers back in January, bringing over 2,000 assists, 800 digs, and an All-America honor from Penn State before Indiana standout Breana Edwards (1,266 kills, 181 total blocks, and 27 aces in 108 total matches in Bloomington) followed suit two months later. But Petrie's offseason reload didn't stop there. Junior libero Madi Allen came aboard from WCC rival BYU in June, shifting one of the conference's most talented liberos from Provo to sunny San Diego and leading Petrie to quip that with the addition of Allen, "the depth of (USD's) defense has no end."

"It's different than bringing in true freshmen," says Petrie, who also added four talented first-years to the 2022 squad. "The actual playing experience that you get in front of big crowds, big moments, pressure situations…being able to handle the long season, this schedule that we have…having them in this program has enabled us to really go full throttle right from the start."

IF PETRIE'S OFFSEASON ROSTER MOVES made ripples, her 2022 schedule made waves. Within minutes of San Diego volleyball's schedule release in June, the comments began rolling in on social media.

"Quite a tough non-conference slate," one Twitter user wrote. "Tough schedule for USD's most successful program," another responded.

Over on Instagram, the discourse continued. 

"Will pay off in the NCAA Tournament," a die-hard fan commented before one more put things more bluntly, writing, "THIS IS SOOOOO TOUGH."

But for Petrie and her team, the difficulty is by design. Nearly a quarter century after she began building a perennial national contender in Alcala Park, this is the way the six-time West Coast Conference Coach of the Year wants it; perhaps the only way she would have it: tough.

"Absolutely," says Petrie, who has advanced the Toreros to the NCAA Tournament in 21 of the past 23 seasons. "We have strong aspirations to be seeded in the top sixteen come NCAA Tournament time, and in order to get that kind of ranking, you really need to make an impression in your preseason schedule."

As far as rankings go, USD is off to a good start, checking in at No. 25 in the AVCA Preseason Coaches poll in what marks the 25th consecutive campaign in which San Diego has been nationally ranked. As they look upwards toward the top, the Toreros will see a handful of opponents (six, to be exact) that lie ahead of them on their 2022 schedule: No. 6 Pitt (August 26's season opener), No. 4 Louisville (September 2), No. 7 Ohio State (September 3), No. 22 Utah (September 10), No. 12 UCLA (September 16), and No. 10 BYU (October 21 and November 22).

"It speaks volumes to the type of program (Petrie) wants to have here, opening up with all these super tough teams," Benbow says of the formidable crop of opponents ahead of San Diego. "She's never taken a year off from that. I think that says a lot about her and the vision she has for this program long-term."

But for Lukes, there is one aspect of the Toreros' perennially challenging non-conference schedule she can do without. 

"People always say, '(USD) is the underdog,'" the San Clemente, California native laments. "I finally was like, why do we have to be the underdogs? Just because we're a smaller school doesn't mean we have to be the underdog…every year we give these teams a run, whether we win or it's a tough game. If people look at us like the underdog, they're most likely wrong."

ONE PLACE WHERE USD isn't likely to be characterized as an underdog is the West Coast Conference, where on Wednesday they were picked to finish second in the WCC Preseason Coaches poll and Benbow, Lukes, Blackwell, and Frohling all earned All-WCC Preseason Team honors.

The lone team ahead of San Diego in the preseason poll would be none other than BYU, a fierce rival that is set to depart the league for the Big 12 after the 2022-2023 athletics calendar winds to a close. 

The Toreros will be tasked with taking care of business against the WCC's other nine programs —  a handful of which gave USD more than enough trouble last season — but there's no doubt that San Diego has its final two matches against its nationally ranked conference counterpart circled on its proverbial calendar.

 
"I think we kind of have the unfinished business thing with them," describes Lukes, who single-handedly ripped off seven straight points against then-fourth ranked Cougars late last November. "The last two years…we weren't at our level enough to compete with them, and I think that this our year."

AS PETRIE CONSIDERS WHAT WILL make this year's squad special from her office in the Jenny Craig Pavilion, a space that's decorated with the types of trophies, awards, and mementos that only a 24-year run of success could allow one to accumulate, she circles back to a common theme. 

"This season, we've talked about the fact that we're 18 (players) deep," Petrie said. "We have 18 people that are playing a significant role, and it's not just the six people that are out on the court, it's the fact that 18 people are pushing toward the same end result every day." 

Asked what it's taken to sustain an extended run of success over nearly a quarter century, the head coach elaborates.
"We're very real and authentic to who we are in the gym," Petrie adds. "I think the foundation of that trust is that we care about each other as people." 

For San Diego women's volleyball in 2022, the expectations, the schedule, the togetherness, the talent — all of it is right there. 

And it's as real as it gets.