University Southern California Trojans
USC
Hawai'i
USC Men's Volleyball Upsets No. 5 Hawaii In 5 Sets
February 16, 2016 | Men's Volleyball
A night after falling to No. 5-ranked Hawaii in 5 sets, the unranked USC men's volleyball team--behind 21 kills and 11 digs from Lucas Yoder--returned the favor by staving off 4 match points in the fifth set and upsetting the Rainbow Warriors, 25-18, 20-25, 21-25, 26-24, 17-15, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest on Tuesday (Feb. 16) at USC's Galen Center.
It was the fourth consecutive match that the teams went 5 sets, including Monday's (Feb. 15) win by Hawaii, 25-15, 22-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10.
USC snapped a 3-match losing skid to improve to 3-11 overall and 3-9 in the MPSF. Hawaii fell to 10-5 overall and 5-5 in the MPSF.
It was the fourth MPSF home match in the past 7 days for the Trojans, who now have an 8-day break before their next match (at No. 10 UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 24).
Alex Slaught added 15 kills and 9 digs for the Trojans, while Jon Rivera had 11 kills, Jack Yoder had 10 digs and Andy Benesh had 5 blocks.
For Hawaii, Kupono Fey had 23 kills while hitting .341,, Sinisa Zarkovic added 15 kills and 5 blocks, Stijn van Tilburg had 11 kills and 7 digs, Hendrik Mol had 9 blocks, Jennings Franciskovic had 8 digs and 7 blocks and Kolby Kanetake had 14 digs.
USC hit .245 to Hawaii's .238 and Troy had more digs (49 to 39), but the Rainbow Warriors outblocked the Trojans, 16.0 to 8.5.
An early 4-0 spurt in the first set gave USC a 7-3 lead and Hawaii could never catch up as the Trojans hit .381, had 4.0 blocks and served 3 aces (the Rainbow Warriors hit .000). Hawaii turned it around in the second set by hitting .387 and using a 3-0 run to build a 19-15 lead, all the cushion it needed. USC got off to a 7-1 lead in the third set, but Hawaii scored 8 of the next 9 points to go up 9-8 and soon after built the margin to 14-11 until the Trojans tied it at 17-17, then later the Rainbow Warriors scored back-to-back points to move ahead 22-20 and held off Troy (Hawaii had 7.0 blocks in the set). USC kept fighting back from 2- and 3- point deficits in the fourth set, then the Trojans took a 21-20 lead behind a 3-point run and closed the set on back-to-back kills by Lucas Yoder. In the final set, Hawaii ran off 4 consecutive points to go up 10-8 and the Rainbow Warriors then held a 14-11 lead before USC tied it at 14-14 (on consecutive Hawaii hitting errors following a Josh Kirchner kill) and then when trailing 15-14 the Trojans used a pair of Slaught kills sandwiching a Lucas Yoder kill to pull out the victory.
