University Southern California Trojans
Thursday, April 22
Provo, Utah
4:00 PM
USC
5-13,5-12MPSF
1
vs
3
Grand Canyon
9-10,8-10MPSF
1
2
3
4
F
Southern California
30
20
17
23
1
Grand Canyon
28
25
25
25
3
Team Stats
USC
GCU
Kills
58
53
Errors
21
14
Attempts
117
104
Hitting %
.316
.375
Points
64
66.5
Assists
54
52
Aces
1
6
Blocks
5
7.5
Game Leaders
Kills
18
Aces
0
Blocks
0
Kills
16
Aces
0
Blocks
1
Kills
12
Aces
0
Blocks
1
Kills
5
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Players Mentioned
OH
/ Men's VolleyballOH-OPP
/ Men's VolleyballOH-OP
/ Men's Volleyball
L
/ Men's Volleyball
OH
/ Men's Volleyball
Photo by: Jenny Chuang
USC Men's Volleyball Falls To No. 9 Grand Canyon In MPSF Tourney Quarterfinals
April 22, 2021 | Men's Volleyball, Features
Camden Gianni had 24 kills while hitting .697 and added 4 aces to lead the No. 9-ranked Grand Canyon men's volleyball team to a 28-30, 25-20, 25-17, 25-23 comeback victory over unranked USC in a quarterfinal match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament on Thursday (April 22) at BYU's Smith Fieldhouse.
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Grand Canyon, the fourth seed in the 7-team tourney, improved to 9-10 overall.  Fifth-seeded USC ended its 2021 campaign at 5-13, having lost its final 5 matches. The Trojans' last 3 losses were to Grand Canyon, which defeated USC twice in the Galen Center to conclude Troy's 2021 regular season.Â
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Pending the outcome of the subsequent Pepperdine-Stanford quarterfinal match, Grand Canyon will move on to play an MPSF semifinal match on Friday (April 23) against either No. 2-ranked and top-seeded BYU or No. 6 UCLA, the tourney's second seed. Tourney host BYU had a quarterfinal bye, while the Bruins defeated Concordia in 4 sets in the opening quarterfinal contest on Thursday.
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USC was led by Billy Fauntleroy, who had 18 kills (9 in the first set) and 9 digs. Brandon Browning added 16 kills (hitting .393) and 4 digs, Clay Dickinson had 12 kills and Cole Paxson had 6 digs.
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Gianni, the two-time MPSF Freshman of the Year, had just 1 hitting error in 33 swings. His teammates Christian Janke and Hugo Fischer each added 10 kills and 5 digs, while Ian McLain had 4 blocks and Avery Enriques had 11 digs.
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Grand Canyon hit .375 in the match to USC's .316. The Lopes also had more aces (6 to 1), blocks (7.5 to 5.0) and digs (32 to 29).
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"I am very proud of how they fought tonight," said sixth-year USC head coach Jeff Nygaard. "It took us a while to make some adjustments after winning the first set, but when we finally did we ended up making too many errors.
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"We might have lost the match, but this team should be proud of what they overcame and accomplished this season. In the post-game talk, the players stood up and talked about how they see a bright future for this program. The graduating players know they left the program in a better place than they found it."
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Said Fauntleroy, who this week was named to the 2021 All-MPSF second team: "We were in every set, but at the end of the day volleyball is a game of runs and Grand Canyon made some runs and got momentum. I truly believe if we had gone to a fifth set, we would have won. We just needed to execute better.
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"I'm really proud how our team fought all season. We were right there with the best teams in the nation, just a couple points away. Our record doesn't reflect what kind of team this was. We made great strides all year and I'm confident that we've left this team in a good spot for the future."Â
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In the first set, USC fell behind early at 4-2 and was down 16-13 before going on a 6-point run (the last 5 points with Jackson Reed at the serving line) to build a 19-16 edge, but Grand Canyon soon after scored 4 in a row to retake the lead at 23-22 and it took extra time for USC to steady itself and then tally the set's final 2 points while hitting .500.
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GCU scored the first 3 points of the second set, USC tied it at 8-8, then a 3-point run gave the Lopes a 14-11 lead and the Trojans couldn't recover as Grand Canyon hit .500.
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The Lopes used a 3-point run to build a 7-4 lead in the third set, then built it to 18-11 with a 4-point run and USC never threatened as Grand Canyon hit .455 and had 5.5 blocks in the set.
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The fourth set stayed tight until the Trojans scored 4 consecutive points to go up 17-14 (again with Reed serving the last 3 points), but GCU got the next 3 points to tie it at 17-17 and then moved ahead 23-21, all the edge it needed to close out the match.
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"I'm very pleased, but we left a lot of points out there," said Grand Canyon head coach Matt Werle, whose team is on a 5-match winning streak. "Camden was very impressive tonight. Our service pressure put us in some nice positions. We were very lucky that Fauntleroy cooled off a bit because he was doing some very nice things early. But our block started to do a good job.
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"We have made tremendous strides over the past few weeks. I've been very impressed with how our team has started to perform."
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Grand Canyon, the fourth seed in the 7-team tourney, improved to 9-10 overall.  Fifth-seeded USC ended its 2021 campaign at 5-13, having lost its final 5 matches. The Trojans' last 3 losses were to Grand Canyon, which defeated USC twice in the Galen Center to conclude Troy's 2021 regular season.Â
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Pending the outcome of the subsequent Pepperdine-Stanford quarterfinal match, Grand Canyon will move on to play an MPSF semifinal match on Friday (April 23) against either No. 2-ranked and top-seeded BYU or No. 6 UCLA, the tourney's second seed. Tourney host BYU had a quarterfinal bye, while the Bruins defeated Concordia in 4 sets in the opening quarterfinal contest on Thursday.
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USC was led by Billy Fauntleroy, who had 18 kills (9 in the first set) and 9 digs. Brandon Browning added 16 kills (hitting .393) and 4 digs, Clay Dickinson had 12 kills and Cole Paxson had 6 digs.
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Gianni, the two-time MPSF Freshman of the Year, had just 1 hitting error in 33 swings. His teammates Christian Janke and Hugo Fischer each added 10 kills and 5 digs, while Ian McLain had 4 blocks and Avery Enriques had 11 digs.
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Grand Canyon hit .375 in the match to USC's .316. The Lopes also had more aces (6 to 1), blocks (7.5 to 5.0) and digs (32 to 29).
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"I am very proud of how they fought tonight," said sixth-year USC head coach Jeff Nygaard. "It took us a while to make some adjustments after winning the first set, but when we finally did we ended up making too many errors.
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"We might have lost the match, but this team should be proud of what they overcame and accomplished this season. In the post-game talk, the players stood up and talked about how they see a bright future for this program. The graduating players know they left the program in a better place than they found it."
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Said Fauntleroy, who this week was named to the 2021 All-MPSF second team: "We were in every set, but at the end of the day volleyball is a game of runs and Grand Canyon made some runs and got momentum. I truly believe if we had gone to a fifth set, we would have won. We just needed to execute better.
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"I'm really proud how our team fought all season. We were right there with the best teams in the nation, just a couple points away. Our record doesn't reflect what kind of team this was. We made great strides all year and I'm confident that we've left this team in a good spot for the future."Â
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In the first set, USC fell behind early at 4-2 and was down 16-13 before going on a 6-point run (the last 5 points with Jackson Reed at the serving line) to build a 19-16 edge, but Grand Canyon soon after scored 4 in a row to retake the lead at 23-22 and it took extra time for USC to steady itself and then tally the set's final 2 points while hitting .500.
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GCU scored the first 3 points of the second set, USC tied it at 8-8, then a 3-point run gave the Lopes a 14-11 lead and the Trojans couldn't recover as Grand Canyon hit .500.
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The Lopes used a 3-point run to build a 7-4 lead in the third set, then built it to 18-11 with a 4-point run and USC never threatened as Grand Canyon hit .455 and had 5.5 blocks in the set.
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The fourth set stayed tight until the Trojans scored 4 consecutive points to go up 17-14 (again with Reed serving the last 3 points), but GCU got the next 3 points to tie it at 17-17 and then moved ahead 23-21, all the edge it needed to close out the match.
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"I'm very pleased, but we left a lot of points out there," said Grand Canyon head coach Matt Werle, whose team is on a 5-match winning streak. "Camden was very impressive tonight. Our service pressure put us in some nice positions. We were very lucky that Fauntleroy cooled off a bit because he was doing some very nice things early. But our block started to do a good job.
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"We have made tremendous strides over the past few weeks. I've been very impressed with how our team has started to perform."
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Men's Volleyball - USC 1, Pepperdine 3: Highlights (04/26/25)
Saturday, April 26
Men's Volleyball - USC 3, Stanford 1: Highlights (04/25/25)
Friday, April 25
Men's Volleyball - USC 3, UCLA 0: Highlights (04/19/25)
Saturday, April 19
Men's Volleyball - USC 2, UCLA 3: Highlights (04/17/25)
Thursday, April 17
