University Southern California Trojans
USC
Hawaii
Men's Volleyball Cruises Past Hawaii, 3-0
April 22, 2000 | Men's Volleyball
April 22, 2000
LOS ANGELES--Brook Billings had a match-high 23 kills while hitting .472 to lead the No. 1-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 15-9, 15-10, 15-4 win over No. 7 Hawaii in a first round match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship on Saturday (April 22) before 1,015 fans in the USC North Gym.
The Trojans improved to 22-4 overall, while the Rainbows finished their season at 19-10.
USC advances to the MPSF tournament's semifinals on Thursday (April 27) and will play at No. 2 Pepperdine, a 15- 10, 15-8, 14-16, 13-15, 15-13 winner over No. 11 Stanford on Saturday. In this Thursday's other semifinal match at Pepperdine, No. 4 UCLA (a 15-11, 15-6, 15-13 winner over No. 6 BYU on Saturday) will meet No. 9 Loyola Marymount (a 15-12, 16-14, 11-15, 7-15, 23-21 upset winner over No. 3 Long Beach State on Saturday). The finals will be next Saturday (April 29) at Pepperdine. The MPSF tourney winner receives an automatic berth into the NCAA Final Four May 4 and 6 at Fort Wayne, Ind.
Eli Fairfield added 15 kills and hit .414 for the Trojans, while teammate Beau Rawi had 11 kills (hitting .600) and a match-best 6 blocks.
For Hawaii, Costas Theocharidis had 16 kills and Clay Stanley had 11 kills.
USC outhit (.481 to .165) and outblocked (11.0 to 6.0) the Rainbows.
The first game was tied at 8-8 before the Trojans ran off 6 unanswered points. Hawaii led the second game 10-9 when USC went on a 6-0 run. In game three, the score was knotted 3-3 before the Trojans scored 12 of the next 13 points.
The win gave the Trojans a 14-0 record at home this season, their first unblemished home mark since going 9-0 in 1991 (and only their fourth undefeated home season, as they were 11-0 in 1986 and 8-0 in 1981). The 14 victories also were Troy's most ever at home.
