USC welcomes new home

LOS ANGELES – Southern California finally has an on-campus home to call its own and it’s already a source of pride.

“We are (proud), very definitely,” senior associate athletic director Carol Dougherty said Tuesday while supervising a tour of the Galen Center, which hosted its first event Wednesday night when the unbeaten USC women’s volleyball team faced Stanford.

The USC men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams will play at the new arena.

“We are still a little bit dirty, slinging things in every direction and trying to get things cleaned up,” Dougherty said as she guided reporters through the complex while dozens of workers kept busy on numerous projects. “The basketball floor is down. The volleyball floor arrived from Germany.”

The men’s basketball team plays its first game at the 10,258-seat arena Nov. 16 against South Carolina, six days after women’s basketball plays there.