Ryan Moss had a career-high and match-leading 21 kills to lead the No. 12-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 25-17, 27-25, 22-25, 25-18 non-conference win over Stevens Institute on Friday (Jan. 5) in the Trojans' second match of the 3-day Texaco Rainbow Warrior Classic in Honolulu, Hi.

It was USC's (3-0) first-ever match against Stevens Institute (0-2), an NCAA Division III program.  On Thursday (Jan. 4), the Trojans swept Juniata, another NCAA Division III team.

Moss hit .409 and added 7 digs, 3 blocks and 3 aces.  Jack Wyett had 15 kills for USC, while freshman Noah Franklin had 8 kills in his first career start, Gert Lisha had 10 digs and 4 blocks and Matt Douglas had 9 digs.

For Stevens Institute, David Lehman had 19 kills while hitting .x438, Gabe Shankweiler added 10 kills and Jacob Patterson and Cooper Diamond each had 5 blocks.

USC hit .333 to the Ducks' 231.  The Trojans had 13 blocks.

USC scored the first 5 points of the opening set and steadily pulled away while hitting .545 and getting 4 blocks.  The second set, in which USC middle blocker Sam Lewis left midway through with an ankle injury, was tight until Stevens built a 21-17 lead, but the Trojans staved off match point at 24-22 before tying it at 24 all and then getting consecutive Wyett kills followed by a Stevens hitting error to capture the set.  Stevens ran off 4 consecutive points early in the third set to go up 9-4 and the Ducks held off the Trojans the rest of the way.  In the fourth set, USC tallied back-to-back points to move out to a 14-12 edge and added to its margin the rest of the way while hitting .579.

USC concludes the Texaco Rainbow Warrior Classic when it faces host No. 5 Hawaii on Saturday (Jan. 6) at 7 p.m. HT.