USC
UC Irvine
UC Irvine Men's Volleyball Beats USC
April 08, 2009 | Men's Volleyball
April 8, 2009
The No. 2-ranked UC Irvine men's volleyball team posted a 30-15, 22-30, 30-25, 30-24 victory over No. 4 USC in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Wednesday (April 8) in Irvine.
The Anteaters improved to 21-4 overall and 16-3 in the MPSF. In losing their 10th consecutive match to UCI, the Trojans fell to 16-8 overall and 12-7 in the MPSF.
UC Irvine hit .338 and had 15.5 blocks, while USC hit just .240 and had only 6 blocks. The Trojans had 20 service errors.
Tony Ciarelli led USC with 23 kills while hitting .487 and he had 9 digs. Murphy Troy added 17 kills, 10 digs and 4 aces, while Riley McKibbin had 14 digs along with 52 assists.
For UCI, Jordan DuFault had 17 kills (hitting .500) and 6 digs, Taylor Wilson added 15 kills and 7 blocks, Brent Asuka had 16 digs, Austin D'Amore had 9 blocks and Ryan Ammerman had 10 digs with 49 assists.
UC Irvine got off to a quick 6-1 start in the first set, aided by 3 early USC errors, and the Anteaters stayed in control throughout while hitting .593 (with no hitting errors) with 4 blocks and 3 aces. USC turned the tide in the second set, jumping out to a 4-1 margin behind a pair of Troy aces and the Trojans never relinquished the lead while hitting .303 and serving 3 aces (UCI had 8 serving errors). The third set was tied at 9-9 before the Anteaters rolled off 7 consecutive points to build a lead it never surrendered. After the fourth set was knotted at 6-6, UCI steadily pulled away by hitting .486.
USC next visits No. 9 UCLA on Friday (April 10) in a 7 p.m. MPSF contest.
