No. 13 USC Men's Volleyball Claims Five-Setter Over No. 9 Stanford

Sunday, February 26

Los Angeles, Calif.

4:00 PM

USC

7-7,1-3MPSF

Stanford

9-6,2-2MPSF

Stanford

Southern California

Photo by: John McGillen

No. 13 USC Men's Volleyball Claims Five-Setter Over No. 9 Stanford

February 26, 2023 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Highlights

The Trojans’ freshman OH Dillon Klein collected a career-high 29 kills to power the USC offense

LOS ANGELES – The 13th-ranked USC men's volleyball team (7-7, 1-3 MPSF) went the distance and snapped a five-match losing streak with a five-set win (25-19, 18-25, 26-24, 22-25, 17-15) over No. 9 Stanford (9-6, 2-2) at Galen Center on Sunday, Feb. 26.

KEY PLAYERS

Fr. OH Dillon Klein scored a career-high 31.0 points and produced a career-best 29 kills (10e, 52att) on .365 hitting, which included a fifth set where he had seven kills on eight swings without an error. His kill total was the most since Simon Gallas had 30 against Penn State last spring (Jan. 21, 2022). It was Klein's 11th match in double-digit kills and his 12th in double-digit points. He also had seven digs, two blocks, and a service ace.
Sr. OPP Simon Gallas racked up 19 kills (8e, 41att, .268) to go with seven digs, and a match- and season-high three service aces. It was his seventh match in double-digit kills this season.
Fr. S Ryan Sprague dished out a career-best 40 assists and had six digs and a block.
Redshirt So. OH Jackson Reed came in and set a new career high with seven kills and was error free to log a career-best .467 hitting percentage. Reed also had career-highs with 15 attacks, nine digs, and two service aces.
Jr. MB Kyle Paulson had seven kills (1e, 14att) to hit .429 and added five blocks and three digs.
Sr. LIB George Dyer shared team-high honors with nine digs and added seven assists.
For the Cardinal, Theo Snoey had 18 kills on .471 hitting and recorded a double-double with 11 digs. Will Rottman had 21 kills on .362 hitting and added five digs and three blocks. Kevin Lamp finished with 12 kills and seven digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Trojans led by as many as seven points twice in the first set and racked up a .423 hitting percentage with six kills from Klein and four from Gallas to take a 25-19 win in the opening frame. Klein and Gallas each served aces in the first and three USC blocks helped hold the Cardinal to .185 hitting despite five kills from Rottman.
Stanford never trailed in the second set to take a 25-18 win and evened the match. Snoey collected five of his kills in the frame and 3.5 blocks by the Cardinal were part of an effort to hold USC to just .000 hitting with eight kills on 29 swings.
With nine ties in the third, the Trojans claimed the final of three lead changes. Down, 24-20, USC erased three set points and finished with a flurry of six straight to complete a 26-24 win. The Trojans got their final five points on three Klein kills sandwiched between the two aces from Reed. USC had 19 kills in the third set and hit .333.
The Trojans stayed within striking distance, but Stanford held USC off in the fourth to claim a 25-22 win and send the match to the fifth set. Gallas had seven kills and Klein totaled six more in set four.
Set five was tied 14 times and the lead changed hands five times before a winner was decided. Both teams had 13 kills, but Stanford had two errors to USC's one and the Trojans' .600 hitting held strong in a 17-15 USC win. Klein had seven more kills in the set and Sprague collected nine of his assists in the final frame.

UP NEXT

USC takes on Menlo (11-1, 3-1 GSAC) out of the Golden State Athletic Conference in a non-league contest on Friday (March 3) at 5 p.m. PT at Galen Center. The match will be streamed live.

MATCH NOTES

USC improved to 72-36 all-time against Stanford and split the regular-season series with the Cardinal.
The Trojans go to 2-7 against AVCA ranked opponents this season.
USC played only its fifth home match of the season and improved to 2-3 in home contests.

For more information on the USC men's volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/MVB. Fans of the Trojans can follow @USCmensvolley on Twitter and Instagram.