USC Athletics

The No. 12-ranked USC men's volleyball team fell to host No. 5 Hawaii, 25-17, 25-20, 25-22 on Saturday (Jan. 6) on the third and final day of the Texaco Rainbow Warrior Classic in Honolulu, Hi.

USC (3-1) suffered its first loss of 2018, while Hawaii remained undefeated (3-0).  The Trojans had beaten Juniata on Thursday (Jan. 4) and Stevens Institute on Friday (Jan. 5) in the first 2 days of the Texaco Rainbow Warrior Classic.

Gianluca Grasso led USC with 13 kills, while Jack Wyett had 11 kills (hitting .304) and 3 blocks and Ryan Moss had 6 kills.

USC faced Hawaii without 6-10 freshman starting middle blocker Sam Lewis, who injured his ankle early in the Stevens Institute match on Friday.

Stijn Van Tilburg led Hawaii with a match-leading 14 kills while hitting .684, Rado Parapunov added 11 kills (hitting .318) and 4 blocks and Brett Rosenmeier had 8 kills (hitting .462) and 6 digs.

Hawaii outhit USC, .479 to .207, and had more digs (24-17).

USC scored the match's first 4 points, but Hawaii answered by scoring the next 6 points and the Rainbow Warriors never trailed the rest of the opening set as they hit .400 with 6 blocks.  In the second set, Hawaii scored 5 unanswered points to build a 15-10 lead and USC couldn't catch up as UH hit .591.  The third set was tied at 20-20 before Hawaii scored back-to-back points, all the cushion it needed to close out the match while hitting .462 to USC's .414.

USC next goes to No. 7 UC Irvine on Friday (Jan. 12) for a 7 p.m. PT non-conference match and then returns home to the Galen Center to host UC Santa Barbara in a non-league contest on Saturday (Jan. 13) at 7 p.m. PT.