Capital One Financial : University of Southern California Women’s Athletics Program Wins Its First-Ever Capital One Cup Trophy

Inaugural NCAA® Beach Volleyball title helps clinch top spot for Trojans

McLean, Va. (July 6, 2016) - Catapulted by winning the national championships in water polo and beach volleyball, the University of Southern California's women's athletics program has captured the 2015-2016 Capital One Cup trophy for the first time ever. The top three teams - USC, Stanford, Penn State - were separated by only 12.5 points, the closest Capital One Cup competition since the program's launch in 2010.

The Capital One Cup, currently in its sixth year, recognizes NCAA Division I athletics programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men's and women's sports. In recognition of this outstanding achievement, the Trojan women's athletics program will join the men of Stanford University to receive a combined $400,000 in student-athlete scholarships and be honored at The 2016 ESPYS on July 13. Both the Trojans and Cardinal compete in the Pac-12, making this the first year both Capital One Cup winners hail from the same conference.

USC kicked off the collegiate sports season with three top-10 finishes between fall and winter - volleyball, indoor track and field, and swimming and diving - landing at 17 place in the Capital One Cup standings. The Trojans turned up the heat in the spring earning two national titles in beach volleyball and water polo, along with top-10 finishes in golf, lacrosse and outdoor track and field, which propelled them to the No. 1 position. Points accumulated from these strong performances earned USC a total of 96 points, enough to surpass Stanford - last year's Capital One Cup champion - and Penn State, who took second and third places, respectively.

'We have always been proud of our women's athletics program and are excited to see it recognized as winners of the 2015-2016 Capital One Cup,' said USC Athletics Director Lynn Swann. 'As a first for our University, we are honored to receive this award and applaud our female athletes and coaching staff on this remarkable achievement. All of us at the University of Southern California would like to extend our gratitude to Capital One for its continued support of student-athletes.'

Competition for the Capital One Cup

With a new No. 1 contender emerging at the end of each athletic season, this year's race for the women's Capital One Cup was fiercer than ever.

• Stanford earned a second place finish with 90 points as a result of a national championship in tennis as well as top-10 finishes in soccer, gymnastics, swimming and diving, golf, lacrosse, outdoor track and field, rowing and water polo.
• Penn State's nationalsoccer title and top-10 finishes in volleyball, fencing and lacrosse helped secure them a third-place finish in the standings.
• Rounding out the top-10 is North Carolina, Oklahoma and Syracuse (tied at 4), along with Nebraska (7), Connecticut (8), Texas (9) and Florida State (10).

Below are the official Capital One Cup women's final standings for the 2015-2016 season, with the top-10 point earners in women's Division I athletics listed.

'This year was certainly an exciting race for the women's Capital One Cup if we've ever seen one,' said Capital One Cup ambassador, Candace Parker. 'The women of USC have not only secured the first-ever Capital One Cup trophy for their school, but how they did it wasn't easy - climbing from 17 place at the end of the winter season to No. 1 at the close of spring. That's quite an accomplishment and they should be very proud.'

'We extend our congratulations to the 2015-2016 Capital One Cup winners, the University of Southern California women's athletics program,' said Marc Mentry, Chief Brand Officer at Capital One. 'With the Trojans concluding a history-making season as the inaugural NCAA® Beach Volleyball champions, we're pleased to present them with the Capital One Cup trophy and $200,000 in student-athlete scholarships. We're delighted to have USC join the growing list of college athletics programs which we've been honored to support over the past six years.'

Highlights from the Capital One Cup during the 2015-2016 women's athletics season include:
From the spring season:

• USC secured the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship with a 3-0 win over Florida State
• Stanford beat Oklahoma State 4-3 to take home the women's tennis title
• North Carolina knocked off undefeated Maryland to claim its second women's lacrosse championship

From the fall and winter seasons:

• Penn State took down Duke to win its first women's soccer national championship
• Nebraska became the women's volleyball champions with a straight-sets victory against Texas
• Connecticut defeated Syracuse to clinch its fourth consecutive women's basketball championship and 11 women's basketball title overall
• Oklahoma made history with its second all-time title in women's gymnastics, becoming the first school to win both the women's and men's gymnastics national titles in the same season
• Combined, 89 schools earned points in the Capital One Cup women's standings

Schools earn points based on their teams' top-10 finishes in NCAA Division I championships and in final official coaches' polls across 21 women's and 20 men's sports as they compete to win the Capital One Cup trophy and a combined $400,000 in scholarships for student-athletes.
Last year, the Capital One Cup was awarded to Stanford University women's athletics program and University of Virginia men's athletics program.

To view the current men's standings and the final women's standings, please visit www.CapitalOneCup.com. Fanscan join in on the conversation at Facebook.com/CapitalOne and Twitter.com/CapitalOne.

About Capital One

Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., had $221.8 billion in deposits and $330.3 billion in total assets as of March 31, 2016. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has branches located primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'COF' and is included in the S&P 100 index.

Capital One, an NCAA Corporate Champion, began its affiliation with college sports with the sponsorship of the Capital One Bowl (formerly the Florida Citrus Bowl) in 2001. Since that time, Capital One has sponsored programs including the Capital One Mascot Challenge and Capital One Academic All-America Program. In 2010, it created the Capital One Cup to recognize the best men's and women's Division 1 College Athletics Programs in the country and awards a combined $400,000 in student-athlete scholarships. As an NCAA Corporate Champion, Capital One supports all 90 NCAA Championships. In 2014, Capital One became an official sponsor of the Capital One Orange Bowl and the new College Football Playoff.

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