USC
Cal State Northridge
No. 1 USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps CSUN
February 23, 2011 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 23, 2011
Three Trojans had double kill figures as the No. 1-ranked USC men's volleyball team went on the road to post a 25-21, 27-25, 25-19 sweep at unranked Cal State Northridge in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Wednesday (Feb. 23).
USC improved both its overall and MPSF records to 9-1, with 7 of those victories coming as 3-0 sweeps. The Trojans are off to their best overall start since going 9-1 in 2000 and their best league start since also posting a 9-1 mark in 1994. CSUN dropped to 4-11 overall and 3-7 in the MPSF.
For the Trojans, Murphy Troy had a match-best 16 kills (hitting .323) with 6 digs, 4 blocks and 2 aces. Tri Bourne added 14 kills while hitting .524 and Tony Ciarelli had 12 kills and 5 digs. Riley McKibbin had a match-high 11 digs, Henry Cassiday added 8 digs and Steven Shandrick had 5 blocks.
Tanner Nua led the Matadors with 10 kills (hitting .400) and 4 blocks, while Drew Staker added 7 kills while hitting .455.
USC hit .636 in the match and had 8.5 blocks, while CSUN hit .256 with 5.0 blocks.
The Trojans trailed 11-9 in the first set, but ran off 5 unanswered points to forge a lead it never relinquished. USC held an early 9-3 lead in the second set, the Matadors caught up at 20-20 only to fall back behind 24-22 before again knotting the score at 24-24, then the Trojans closed the set with a pair of Ciarelli kills (CSUN hit .462 in the set to USC's .390). USC went on a 4-0 run (with the help of 3 straight Ciarelli kills) to open a 10-6 margin in the final set and was never threatened while hitting. 600.
USC next visits No. 6 Long Beach State on Friday (Feb. 25) for a 7 p.m. MPSF contest.
