USC
Pacific
No. 1 USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps Pacific
February 19, 2011 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 19, 2011
Tri Bourne had 13 kills and Tony Ciarelli added 12 kills to pace the No. 1-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 25-15, 25-23, 25-21 win over No. 15 Pacific in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Saturday (Feb. 19) in USC's Galen Center.
The Trojans' overall and MPSF record is now 8-1. Pacific dropped to 6-9 overall and 2-7 in the MPSF.
USC got a lift from redshirt freshman opposite hitter Tanner Jansen, in his first career start while subbing for All-American Murphy Troy, who had the flu. Jansen had 7 kills while hitting .600, plus 7 digs and 3 blocks.
Bourne hit .632 in the match, while Ciarelli hit . 357 and added 2 aces. Teammate Steven Shandrick had 8 kills (hitting .700) and a match-best 6 blocks, while Austin Zahn had 6 kills and 4 blocks.
USC hit .444 overall and posted 10.5 blocks, 5 aces and 26 digs. The Tigers hit just .250 and had only 3.0 blocks, 1 ace and 21 digs.
Taylor Hughes led Pacific with 13 kills (hitting .407), while Florian Gornik added 12 kills (hitting .409) with 5 digs and Javier Caceres had 7 digs.
USC trailed 8-6 in the first set before running off 5 straight points and then the Trojans steadily built on that lead while hitting .684 and getting 4.5 blocks. The second set started off like the first, with USC overcoming a deficit by scoring 3 consecutive points to forge a 6-5 lead, which it built to 18-13 before Pacific nearly overcame that margin. The Trojans jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set and then fell behind 15-14, but with the score tied at 18-18, USC scored 4 unanswered points to gain control of the set in which it hit .414 and had 4.0 blocks.
USC next travels to Cal State Northridge on Wednesday (Feb. 23) for a 7 p.m. MPSF match.
