University Southern California Trojans
USC
2-11, 2-9MPSF
Hawai'i
10-4, 5-4MPSF
No. 5 Hawaii Men's Volleyball Beats USC In 5 Sets
February 15, 2016 | Men's Volleyball
Kupono Fey had 19 kills while hitting .361 and Sinisa Zarkovic added 15 kills and 9 digs to lead the No. 5-ranked Hawaii men's volleyball team to a 25-15, 22-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10 comeback win over unranked USC in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Monday (Feb. 15) at USC's Galen Center.
Hawaii, which snapped a 3-match losing skid after starting the 2016 season 9-1, improved to 10-4 overall and 5-4 in the MPSF. USC fell to 2-11 overall and 2-9 in the MPSF.
The Trojans and Rainbow Warriors meet again on Tuesday (Feb. 16) at 7 p.m. PT in the Galen Center. It will be the Trojans' fourth MPSF home match in a 7-day span.
Lucas Yoder led USC with 16 kills while hitting .448, Alex Slaught added 11 kills and 8 digs, Andy Benesh had 9 kills and Tommy Leonard had 6 blocks. Freshman Woody Cook, in his first action as a Trojan, came off the bench to record 7 kills and 6 digs.
Iain McKellar added 9 kills (hitting .538) for the Rainbow Warriors, Hendrik Mol had 8 blocks and Kolby Kanetake had 17 digs.
Hawaii hit .263 in the match to USC's .215. The Rainbow Warriors also had more blocks (14.5 to 11.0), digs (48 to 36) and aces (4 to 0).
Hawaii ran off 5 consecutive points in the first set to open up a 12-6 lead and continued to pull away the rest of the set while hitting .379 and getting 5.0 blocks. USC led throughout the second set, scoring the first 2 points and then going on a 3-0 run to go up 7-3, then Troy's lead increased to 14-7 but the Rainbow Warriors closed to 17-16 before USC regained control (the Trojans posted 5.0 blocks in the set). In the third set, USC scored 3 unanswered points to build a 9-6 lead and Hawaii could never catch up as the Trojans hit .323 and also had 3.5 blocks and 10 digs. The Rainbow Warriors moved out to a quick 2-0 lead in the fourth set and continued to extend it while hitting .571. USC led 5-3 in the fifth set but Hawaii crept back and used a 5-0 run to go up 11-6, all the cushion it needed to close out the match.
