USC
Pepperdine
No. 1 USC Men's Volleyball Is Upset By Pepperdine
February 11, 2011 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 11, 2011
The No. 11-ranked Pepperdine men's volleyball team gave top-ranked USC its first loss of the season with a 25-23, 20-25, 23-25, 25-16, 17-15 upset in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match in Malibu on Friday (Feb. 11).
USC came into the match with a 6-0 record, its best overall start since 1994, and was looking to go to 7-0 for the first time since 1991. Ironically, it was Pepperdine which also snapped the Trojans 6-match season-opening streak in 1994.
The Waves improved to 4-5 overall and 2-5 in the MPSF, while USC fell to 6-1 in both overall and league play. The match ended a 5-match road trip for USC, which was coming off a bye week.
Pepperdine hit .352 in the match and served 6 aces, while the Trojans hit at a season-low .292 clip.
Murphy Troy had a match-high and season-best 29 kills, in the process breaking the USC career rally scoring era record for kills. He now has 1,649 kills, breaking Juan Figueroa's mark of 1,627 set from 2005 to 2008. Troy, who hit .435 in the match, also had a match-leading 8 digs along with 4 blocks.
Tri Bourne added 15 kills (hitting .361), 7 digs and 6 blocks for USC, while Tony Ciarelli had 11 kills. Ian Wright, who started at middle blocker for Austin Zahn (sprained ankle), had 7 kills and 6 blocks. Henry Cassiday had 7 digs.
Pepperdine had 4 players in double kill figures. Maurice Torres had 17 kills, 7 digs and 4 aces, Beau Vandeweghe had 15 kills while hitting .545 and added 5 blocks, Matt Pollock had 12 kills (also hitting .545) plus 7 blocks and Cory Riecks had 10 kills and 7 digs while eclipsing the 1,000 career kills mark.
USC held a 23-21 lead in the first set before the Waves ran off 4 straight points. The Trojans turned it around in the second set, getting off to a 6-1 start and never were threatened while hitting .391. USC trailed 19-18 in the third set before going on a 4-point run to gain control of the set as it hit .423. In the fourth set, Pepperdine scored 3 consecutive points to forge an 8-7 lead and steadily pulled away while hitting .550 to USC's .167. USC was up 11-8 in the final set, but Pepperdine caught up at 12-12 and then went ahead 16-15 on a USC hitting error, then ended the match with a Riecks kill.
USC next hosts No. 4 Stanford on Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. in an MPSF match in the Galen Center.
