USC
Pacific
USC Men's Volleyball Wins At Pacific
February 24, 2012 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 24, 2012
Maddison McKibbin and Tony Ciarelli each had 17 kills to lead the No. 6-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 25-18, 25-23, 28-30, 25-23 win at No. 11 Pacific in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday (Feb. 24).
In winning its 12th consecutive match against Pacific, the Trojans improved to 8-4 overall and 6-4 in the MPSF. The Tigers dropped to 5-10 overall and 3-7 in the MPSF.
McKibbin, playing in just his third match of 2012 after being sidelined with a pre-season ankle sprain, hit .355. Ciarelli added 8 digs. Teammate Steven Shandrick had 13 kills while hitting .650 as he has no hitting errors in 20 attempts. Steven Mochalski added 10 kills and 13 digs, Henry Cassiday had 11 digs, national blocking leader Robert Feathers (a true freshman) had 9 blocks and Micah Christenson had 6 digs, 6 blocks and 2 aces.
For Pacific, Taylor Hughes had a match-leading 22 kills while hitting .366, Florian Gornik added 14 kills, Sean Daley had 8 kills (hitting .400) and 7 blocks and Javier Caceres had 13 digs.
USC outhit Pacific, .289 to .240, and had more blocks (17.5 to 11.0) and digs (43 to 34).
The first set was tied at 16-16 before USC used a 6-0 run to build all the cushion it needed while hitting .407. After USC pulled out to a 5-0 lead in the second set, Pacific fought back to get within 23-21, but kills by McKibbin and Shandrick sealed the set for Troy. The Trojans fell behind 10-6 in the third set, then caught up at 17-17 and the set was tight the rest of the way until a Daley kill and a USC hitting error gave Pacific the win. After trailing 13-10 in the fourth set, USC tied it at 14-14 and then with the score tied at 22-22 a pair of McKibbin kills gave the Trojans a margin that held up.
USC next travels across the Bay to play an MPSF contest at No. 1 Stanford on Saturday (Feb. 25).
