July 23, 2008

LOS ANGELES -- Former USC middle blocker Bibiana Candelas (Torreon, Mexico/Colegio Ponceno) will compete at the 2008 Olympics in beach volleyball for her home country of Mexico. She becomes USC's third Olympian for women's volleyball to compete in China along with two former Women of Troy players who were selected for their respective indoor volleyball teams: Nicole Davis (U.S.) and Asia Kaczor (Poland).

Candelas becomes the 22nd player in USC history to compete in the Olympics.

She was a three-time All-American from 2002-05 and a member of USC's back-to-back national championship squads in 2002 and 2003. During her time at USC, she set school season records in 2005 for attacks (1,253), total points (575.0) and points per game (5.64) before all three records were broken by Kaczor.

Her beach career took a big jump in 2006 when she and former Minnesota libero Paula Gentil won the Collegiate National Beach Volleyball Championships in Reno, Nev., which earned them a wild card spot in the AVP Hermosa Beach Open.

Candelas will team up with Mayra Garcia in Beijing.