USC
UCLA
No. 1 USC Men's Volleyball Wins at UCLA
January 28, 2011 | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 28, 2011
Murphy Troy had a match-high 26 kills and 5 aces to lead the No. 1-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 25-22, 23-25, 26-24, 25-16 win at No. 4 UCLA in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday (Jan. 28).
USC extended its overall and MPSF records to 6-0. That is its best overall start since also beginning 6-0 in 1994 and its best MPSF start since going 7-0 in 2000. The victory was the Trojans' third straight over the Bruins (and sixth in the last 7 meetings). It upped USC head coach Bill Ferguson's record to 7-2 over legendary Bruin head coach Al Scates. It also gave USC 2.5 points in the Crosstown Gauntlet, the all-sports competition between the intracity rivals.
UCLA dropped to 7-3 overall and 2-2 in the MPSF.
Troy, who was the AVCA and MPSF Player of the Week last week, continued his hot play. After hitting .632 at No. 6 UC Santa Barbara in USC's sweep on Wednesday, he hit .512 against the Bruins. He also had 7 digs.
Teammate Tony Ciarelli added 15 kills and a match-leading 10 digs, Austin Zahn had 7 kills and a match-best 7 blocks, Riley McKibbin dished 52 assists and also had 7 digs and 4 blocks, Steven Shandrick had 5 kills and 5 blocks and Henry Cassiday had 8 digs.
For UCLA, Weston Dunlap had 13 kills while hitting .688, Thomas Amberg added 12 kills, Gonzalo Quiroga had 9 kills and 9 digs and Ryal Jagd came off the bench to contribute 6 kills and 6 digs.
USC hit .347 overall to UCLA's .214 and had more blocks (14.5 to 7.0) and digs (41 to 33).
USC jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the first set, but had to survive a late UCLA comeback that saw the Bruins pull within 23-22. The Trojans hit .419 in that opening set. USC had a 22-20 lead in the second set before UCLA ran off 3 straight points to grab control of a set in which both teams hit below .210. In the third set, it was UCLA that held a late lead at 22-19 before USC caught up at 23-23 and then scored the final 2 points while hitting .361. The Trojans got a boost in that third set with the early insertion of Tri Bourne into the lineup. USC trailed 11-10 in the final set before running off 10 consecutive points, the last 9 coming with Troy serving (he had 4 aces in that run, including one off the face of a Bruin passer).
USC now has a 2-week break before concluding its 5-match road trip with an MPSF match at No. 8 Pepperdine on Feb. 11. The Trojans will be aiming to improve to 7-0 for their best overall start since the 1991 team won its first 28 matches. In 1994, it was the Waves who ended USC's season-opening 6-match winning streak.
