USC
Pepperdine
Pepperdine Upsets USC Men's Volleyball
January 29, 2010 | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 29, 2010
The No. 11 Pepperdine men's volleyball team fought back from a 2-1 deficit to upset top-ranked USC, 33-31, 26-30, 27-30, 31-29, 15-10, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday (Jan. 29) in Malibu.
The Trojans fell to 6-2 overall and suffered their first MPSF loss of the season while dropping to 4-1. The Waves improved to 2-4 overall and 2-3 in the MPSF.
Murphy Troy topped 5 Trojans in double kill figures, getting 21 while hitting .400 and he added 6 digs. Tony Ciarelli added 18 kills (hitting .375) and 8 digs and Tri Bourne also had 18 kills along with 10 digs. Hunter Current hit .737 (15 kills and just 1 error in 19 attempts). Austin Zahn had 10 kills (hitting .400) and 5 blocks. Andrew Pizula had a match-best 10 digs.
Maurice Torres led Pepperdine with a match-best 18 kills (hitting .400), plus 6 blocks and 3 aces. Cory Riecks added 21 kills (hitting .459), Rodnei Santos had 14 kills (hitting .571) and 5 blocks, Tyler Jaynes had 12 kills (hitting .522) and 5 blocks and both Kasey Crider and Sean Grubbs had 9 digs.
Both teams hit for a high percentage, .391 by Pepperdine and .369 by USC. The Waves had more blocks (12 to 6), while the Trojans had more digs (44 to 33).
Pepperdine won the first set when USC closed it out with a pair of hitting errors. The Trojans pulled away from a 6-6 tie early in the second set on a pair of Ciarelli kills and never surrendered the lead. A pair of Wave hitting errors broke a 20-20 tie in the third set and allowed USC to hold an edge through the remainder of that set. The Trojans led 18-14 in the fourth set, but Pepperdine went on a 12-6 run to pull ahead for good, 26-24. In the final set, USC overcame a 7-4 deficit to tie it at 8-8, but then 3 consecutive Pepperdine kills gave the Waves an edge they never relinquished.
USC next plays at Cal State Northridge on Feb. 3 at 7 p.m.
