No. 7 USC Men's Volleyball Tames Lions in 3-0 Sweep

Saturday, January 18

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

USC

4-0,0-0MPSF

Emmanuel

0-2,0-0Conference Carolinas

Emmanuel (GA)

Southern California

Photo by: Drake Lee

No. 7 USC Men's Volleyball Tames Lions in 3-0 Sweep

January 18, 2025 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Highlights

The Trojans moved to 4-0 on the season with a straight-set win over Emmanuel

LOS ANGELES – The seventh-ranked USC men's volleyball team (4-0) defeated Emmanuel (0-2) in three sets (25-12, 25-9, 25-15) at Galen Center on Saturday, Jan. 18. The Trojans are 4-0 for the second consecutive year and for the third time in four seasons.

KEY PLAYERS

Fr. OH Christian Connell led the Trojan attack and secured his first double-digit performance with 10 kills (1e, 17att) and .529 hitting. He also had a pair of service aces and put up five digs.
Redshirt So. OPP Noah Roberts had a match-high 13.0 points collected on eight kills (1e, 14att) with .500 hitting and a match-best and career-high seven blocks (one solo). Roberts also had one of USC's five service aces and two digs.
Fr. LIB Johnny Dykstra got his first collegiate start and had the first double-digit digs match of the season by a Trojan. He finished with 10 and had one assist.
Fr. OH Sterling Foley recorded six kills (2e, 12att, .333) to go with three blocks and three digs.
Fr. MB Tyler Robinson scored eight points on five kills (5att) and 1.000 hitting with six blocks.
Jr. S Ryan Sprague put up 27 assists and set the Trojans to a .492 hitting performance to go with five digs and earned, a kill, and a service ace.
For the Lions, Aidan Feeney led with five kills and had five digs. Oliwer Wrobel had 16 assists and three digs. Greg Bodus, Thijs Van der Wal, and Lucas Nieves each had three kills apiece.

HOW IT HAPPENED

USC hit .492 to Emmanuel's .000 and had more kills (36-20), assists (30-19), digs (29-16), and blocks (11.5-2) than the Lions.
The Trojans grabbed a 1-0 lead on a 25-12 win in the opening frame. After trailing by three, 6-3, USC put the clamps on and did it behind a seven-point service run by Markus Olsson which had the Trojans in front by 12 points, 21-9. Olsson scored one of three USC service aces during that burst. Connell had the other two aces and shared team-high honors with four kills. Roberts also had four kills to help lift the Trojans to a .500 hitting performance (14k, 3e, 22att). USC recorded a pair of blocks in the first set to help hold the Lions to a .083 hitting rate (7k, 5e) on 24 swings.
USC racked up 6.5 blocks in the second set to keep the Lions tamed on a negative .071 hitting percentage (6k, 8e, 28att). The Trojans were error free on the attack and posted 11 kills on 17 swings for .647 hitting in the set. Robinson had four kills on four swings and got in on three blocks. Roberts added two more blocks and had a service ace to go with a team-high four blocks in the set, one solo.
The Trojans hit .364 in the third and collected three more blocks and dug up 13 balls with six by Dykstra to hold the Lions to a .000 rate. Connell added three more kills while Roberts had two. USC was never tied and never trailed in the third and built an in-set lead of 12 points at 23-11.

UP NEXT

USC plays its first road match of the season next Wednesday (Jan. 22) when the Trojans take a trip to Northridge to face CSUN (5-0) at the Matadome (Premier America Credit Union Arena). First serve is set for 6 p.m. PT and the match will be shown live on ESPN+.

MATCH NOTES

USC and Emmanuel played for the first time.
The Trojans strung together three consecutive straight-set wins for the first time since 2012 (April 12-21) when USC defeated Long Beach State once and CSUN twice in a trio of 3-0 sweeps.
USC reached double-digit blocks for third time this season and finished with 11.5 blocks against the Lions.
The Trojans improved to 4-0 under head coach Jeff Nygaard for the third time and for the third time in the last four seasons. Previously, USC was also 4-0 under Nygaard in '22, and '24.

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 Facebook, X, and Instagram.