USC
Hawai'i
No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Outlasts Hawaii In 5 Sets
March 04, 2012 | Men's Volleyball
March 4, 2012
Tony Ciarelli had a match-high 21 kills to help the No. 4-ranked USC men's volleyball team outlast No. 13 Hawaii in 5 sets, 25-17, 24-26, 25-22, 16-25, 15-10, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Sunday afternoon (March 4) in USC's Galen Center.
USC, which swept the Warriors on Friday (March 2), improved to 11-4 overall and 9-4 in the MPSF. Hawaii lost its sixth straight match to drop to 6-11 overall and 3-9 in the MPSF.
Ciarelli hit .340 in the match and added 7 digs and 4 blocks. Teammate Maddison McKibbin had 10 kills and 5 blocks, while Steven Shandrick had a match-best 7 blocks and Henry Cassiday had 8 digs.
For Hawaii, Steven Hunt had 20 kills and 4 blocks, JP Marks had 12 kills, 7 digs and 2 aces, Nick West had 10 kills, 6 blocks and 2 aces, Nick Castello had a match-leading 12 digs and Jarrod Lofy had 5 blocks.
Neither team hit well, with USC at .210 and Hawaii at .175. Troy had 17.5 blocks and 34 digs, while the Warriors had 13.0 blocks and 41 digs.
USC got off to a 5-1 start in the first set and was never threatened while hitting .500 and getting 5.0 blocks. The second set also began with USC up 5-1, but this time Hawaii caught up at 15-15 and, although the Trojans built the lead back up to 21-18 and then 23-20, the Warriors scored 6 of the set's final 7 points, going up 24-23 and then closing it out on consecutive kills by Hunt and Marks. USC struggled for the first half of the third set before a 3-0 run gave Troy a 17-16 lead that it never relinquished as the Trojans hit .414 and had 5.0 blocks. Hawaii jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the fourth set and USC could never overcome a widening gap as the Warriors posted 5.0 blocks. Early in the fifth set, USC scored 6 unanswered points with the help of 3 Hawaii hitting errors and a pair of aces from Tanner Jansen to forge a 7-2 lead and the Warriors couldn't catch up.
USC next hosts a non-conference match against No. 6 Penn State on Friday (March 9) at 7 p.m. in the Galen Center.
