USC
Pacific
No. 2 USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps No. 11 Pacific
March 30, 2012 | Men's Volleyball
March 30, 2012
Steven Mochalski had 11 kills and Steven Shandrick and Tanner Jansen each added 10 kills to help the No. 2-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 25-18, 25-16, 25-22 sweep over No. 11 Pacific in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday (March 30) in USC's North Gym.
USC won its 12th consecutive match to tie last year's streak that was the program's longest since a school-record 30 in a row in 1990-91. The Trojans improved to 17-4 overall and 13-4 in the MPSF. The Tigers fell to 7-15 overall and 4-12 in the MPSF.
It was the second of 3 matches that Troy is playing this year in the quaint, cramped North Gym, the original home of USC men's volleyball. The Trojans played there from the program's inception in 1970 through 1988 and then at times from 1997 to 2006 before moving into the new Galen Center. A previously-contracted event in the Galen Center has displaced the Trojans for these 3 home matches in late March, including Saturday's (March 31) MPSF contest against No. 5 Stanford at 7 p.m.
Against Pacific, USC hit .294 to the Tigers' .145. The Trojans served 5 aces and had more digs (31 to 20) and blocks (10.0 to 8.5).
Shandrick hit .533, Robert Feathers had 7 blocks, Micah Christenson had 10 digs and Tony Ciarelli had 7 digs.
For Pacific, Taylor Hughes had 10 kills and Florian Gornik added 9 kills.
With USC leading just 18-17 in the first set, the Trojans scored 7 of the set's final 8 points, aided by a pair of vicious Ciarelli aces (his ace on set point tatooed the Pacific passer). USC got off to a quick 3-0 lead as Ciarelli served aces for the first 2 points and the Trojans steadily pulled away while hitting .478. The third set seesawed until consecutive USC points gave Troy a 16-14 lead that it never relinquished.
