Players Mentioned
USC Men's Volleyball Hosts Fall Tourney On Saturday
November 09, 2017 | Men's Volleyball, Features
The USC men's volleyball squad will host the 8-team pre-season 2017 USC Fall Tournament this Saturday (Nov. 11) in the Galen Center Pavilion.
The Trojans will be joined by Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponents UCLA, Stanford, Grand Canyon and Concordia, plus non-conference foes UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and UC San Diego.
Admission is free. The Galen Center Pavilion is adjacent to the Galen Center, with the volleyball courts on the upstairs level.
Competition begins at 8:30 a.m. with the first 3 matches of the tourney and continues with matches at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:45 p.m. and the final matches at 4 p.m.
USC faces Cal State Northridge at 8:30 a.m., Concordia at 10 a.m., Grand Canyon at 1:30 p.m., Stanford at 2:45 p.m. and then splits its squad to play UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara at 4 p.m.
The other matches at 8:30 a.m. are Grand Canyon vs. UCLA and Concordia vs. Stanford. At 10 a.m., it's UC Santa Barbara vs. UC San Diego and Grand Canyon vs. Cal State Northridge. UC San Diego vs. Stanford, UCLA vs. UC Santa Barbara and Concordia vs. Grand Canyon will play at 11:30 a.m. Then at 1:30 p.m., it's UCLA vs. UC San Diego and Cal State Northridge vs. Stanford. Concordia vs. UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge vs. UCLA starts at 2:45 p.m.
All matches will be the best of 3 sets, with the first 2 sets played to 25 points and the third set to 15 points. For matches that are decided in 2 sets, teams have the option of playing a non-counting third set.
USC is coming off an improved season in 2017 when it doubled its 2016 win total by going 14-14 overall and advancing to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.  After dropping 7 of their first 9 matches, the Trojans finished strong by winning 8 of their last 10 contests. USC gave NCAA Tournament participant Long Beach State 1 of its 4 losses of 2017 and Troy also beat 4 other Top 10 teams.  Third-year head coach Jeff Nygaard returns 9 lettermen return from last season, including 4 starters and the libero, led by setter Gert Lisha, middle blocker Connor Inlow and libero Matt Douglas. Nine talented freshmen also will look to contribute in 2018.
After Saturday's USC Fall Tournament, the Trojans continue their pre-season competition by playing at the UCLA Fall Tournament on Nov. 17 and 18. Troy begins its 2018 regular season with a non-conference home match against Princeton on Jan. 2 and then playing in the Texaco Rainbow Warrior Classic in Hawaii on Jan. 4-5-6 versus Juniata, Stevens Institute and Hawaii.
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