No. 12 USC Men's Volleyball Falls to No. 19 UC San Diego in Five-Setter

Wednesday, January 31

La Jolla, Calif.

7:00 PM

USC

6-3,0-0MPSF

UC San Diego

3-6,0-0Big West

Southern California

UC San Diego

Photo by: Harrison Cho

No. 12 USC Men's Volleyball Falls to No. 19 UC San Diego in Five-Setter

January 31, 2024 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Highlights

The Trojans were led by a 15-kill performance from OH Dillon Klein

LA JOLLA, Calif. – The 12th-ranked USC men's volleyball team (6-3) fell to No. 19 UC San Diego (3-6) in five set (25-18, 21-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-10) at LionTree Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 31.

KEY PLAYERS

So. OH Dillon Klein reached double-digit kills in a match for the 26th time in his career and finished with a team-high 16.5 points on 15 kills (6e, 28att) on .321 hitting to go with three blocks and five digs.
Redshirt Jr. OPP Jack Deuchar had 14.0 points with 11 kills, one service ace, and four blocks to go with six digs.
Sr. MB Kyle Paulson racked up eight kills without an error on nine swings to hit .889 and led the team with five blocks (one solo). Paulson also added four digs and had a service ace.
Fr. MB Wes Smith posted nine kills (1e, 17att) and hit .471 with three blocks, a dig, and a service ace.
Fr. S Caleb Blanchette dished out 40 assists—with seven digs and three blocks (one solo)—to set USC to .252 hitting.
Jr. LIB Austin Stuard led the team with eight digs and had two assists.
In his first action in four matches, So. OH Riley Haine scored seven points with four kills, two service aces, and two blocks.
Redshirt Fr. OPP Noah Roberts saw his first collegiate action when he entered the match in the fifth set.
For the Tritons, Anthony Cherfan led with 24.5 points on 17 kills and six service aces. Evan Boyle had 11 digs. Andrew Boyle put up 50 assists and had two of UCSD's 14 aces. Matthew Lim scored 15 kills and had six digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED

USC reached double-digit blocks for the fifth time this season and out-blocked UCSD, 11.5 to 6.0. The Tritons had more kills (57-47) and aces (14-5) but USC had the edge in digs (35-32).
The Trojans hit .524 behind a five-kill performance from Klein in the opening frame to snag a 25-18 win. Deuchar and Paulson each added three kills apiece. The Tritons led by as many as four points early, but a big 9-3 Trojan run put USC on top for good and forced the media timeout at 15-13.
USC took a brief 7-6 lead in the second set, but the Tritons went in front once more and never trailed again to even the match with a 25-21 win. Klein had three kills, but the Trojans totaled eight kills and hit .190 in set two.
Deuchar had four kills in the third and Klein added three to lift the Trojans to a 25-23 win and a 2-1 lead in the match. USC hit .250 with nine kills and posted three blocks to go with two service aces. UC San Diego put up 15 kills and reached double-digit aces during set three but committed critical errors down the stretch.
UCSD led by as many as four three times including at 24-20, but the Trojans fought for every point before the Tritons sent the match to a fifth set on a 25-23 win in the fourth. USC hit .148 and had 12 kills and two service aces. Smith had four of the kills to lead the Trojans, but the Tritons tallied three more aces and had two blocks in the fourth-set win.
The Tritons had a 9-6 edge in fifth-set kills, but the Trojans used UCSD errors to edge back into the fray before the Tritons closed out a 15-13 win to take the match. UCSD hit .333 to USC's .167 in the fifth.

UP NEXT

The Trojans and Tritons meet again for the back half of the home-and-home series on Friday, Feb. 2, at Galen Center. The match will be streamed live at 7 p.m. PT on the USC live stream platform. Tickets are available at USCTrojans.com/tickets.

MATCH NOTES

USC fell to 45-12 all-time against UC San Diego.
The Trojans collected more blocks than their opponent for the seventh time and reached double-digit blocks (11.5) for the fifth time this season.

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.