Illinois entered this past weekend's NCAA Women's Final Four with an interesting proposition. To win the national championship, the Fighting Illini would most likely have to win the championship of Los Angeles. USC stood as the opponent in Thursday's semi-finals, with UCLA up next in Saturday's finals provided the Bruins could handle Florida State (which UCLA did , via sweep). The Illini passed its first test, besting USC in a five-game classic . On the final point of the Illinois-USC match, shown here on YouTube, the ball crossed the net 20 times , before the Trojans hit it out to give the Illini a 15-10 win in the closing set. Unfortunately for Illinois, its difficulty in putting the ball away on the final point vs. USC foreshadowed troubles it would have doing so two nights later against UCLA. The Bruins had the upper hand for most of the championship match and won in four, 25-23, 23-25 , 26-24, 25-16. Thanks to a pair of Illini spurts -- outscoring UCLA 12-3