University Southern California Trojans
USC Men's Volleyball Opens 2006 Season at UC Santa Barbara Tourney
January 06, 2006 | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 6, 2006
The young USC men's volleyball team will open its 2006 season this Friday and Saturday (Jan. 6-7) at the 42nd annual Elephant Bar Invitational at UC Santa Barbara.
The Trojans, seeded seventh in the 8-team tourney, first meet No. 2-seeded Long Beach State at 1 p.m. on Friday. Troy will then face either No. 3 Cal State Northridge or No. 6 Pacific at 7 p.m. on Friday. USC will play a third match on Saturday against a to-be-determined opponent, with the match time TBA.
UCLA is seeded first in the tourney that features 8 teams from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Other participants include host UC Santa Barbara, seeded fourth, plus No. 5 UC Irvine and No. 8 Stanford.
USC, which is coming off 4 consecutive disappointing 11th place finishes in the 12-team MPSF, is young (just 4 upperclassmen on the 19-player roster) but talented and hungry in 2006. The Trojans are led by 3-year starting outside hitter Joao Grangeiro, sophomore setter Jimmy Killian and freshman opposite hitter C.J. Schellenberg, who was the 2005 national player of the year at Loyola High in Los Angeles.
