No. 7 USC Men's Volleyball Opens Season on Four-Set Win Over Daemen

Thursday, January 9

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

USC

1-0,0-0MPSF

Daemen

0-1,0-0NEC

Daemen

Southern California

Photo by: Drake Lee

No. 7 USC Men's Volleyball Opens Season on Four-Set Win Over Daemen

January 09, 2025 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

The Trojans got 16 kills from Dillon Klein in a 3-1 victory over the Wildcats

LOS ANGELES – The seventh-ranked USC men's volleyball team (1-0) defeated Daemen (0-1) in four sets (19-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-14) at the Galen Center Pavilion on Thursday, Jan. 9. It was The Trojans' 35th win in a season opener all-time.

KEY PLAYERS

Jr. OH Dillon Klein led the Trojans with 16 kills (5e, 34att) on .324 hitting and had three digs, two assists, and a block.
Redshirt So. OPP Noah Roberts racked up 11 kills (5e, 27att, .222) and had eight digs and four blocks.
So. S Caleb Blanchette put up 35 assists and set the Trojans to a .316 hitting performance to go with five digs, five blocks, a kill, and a service ace.
Fr. OH Sterling Foley scored 12.0 points collected on nine kills (2e, 17att) with .412 hitting and had four blocks, three digs, and a service ace in his collegiate debut.
In another college debut, Fr. MB Parker Tomkinson had four kills (0e) on nine swings to hit .444 and led all players with six blocks. He also led the team with two of its four service aces on the night.
Gr. MB Guy Genis scored five blocks (one solo) and tallied three kills and had a pair of digs.
Sr. LIB Austin Stuard put up six digs and had an assist. He received serve a team-high 19 times with only one error.
For the Wildcats, Zach Schneider led with 17 kills (7e, 35att, .286) to go with eight digs, two blocks, and two aces. Billy Wieberg had eight kills but was held to .095 hitting. Kyle Zelasko led all players with 11 digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Trojans out-hit the Wildcats, .316 to .168 and had more kills (44-43) and blocks (13.0-6.0).
Daemen never trailed and was only tied once at four-all as the Wildcats took a 25-19 win in the opening frame. The Trojans got five kills from Klein and hit .240 in set one, but Daemen posted a .448 hitting rate and was buoyed by a seven-kill performance from Schneider. Riley Haine put up three digs and the Trojans had two blocks at the net.
Set two was tied eight times before the Trojans broke free to claim a 25-23 win to even the match. Roberts went up high like Yertle the Turtle and sealed the set with his third kill of the frame. Klein added three kills and Foley had two. Daemen had the .269 to .259 edge in hitting and was led by three kills apiece from Maverick O'Neil, Patrick Mullen, and Wieberg.
The Trojans hit .400 in set three and posted four blocks to hold the Wildcats to .000 in a 25-20 win. Klein scored five kills and Roberts added four more to go with four digs as USC went on top, 2-1. Schneider had four kills for Daemen, but the Trojans broke a nine-all tie and spurred a run that had them on top by as many as six points at 16-10.
USC posted 4.5 blocks in the fourth set and ran away with a 25-14 result to seal the match victory. The Trojans got four kills apiece from Roberts and Foley and hit .385 to far outpace the Wildcats' negative .083 performance. Tomkinson served a pair of aces, one to put USC in front, 3-1, and the other to give the Trojans a 15-9 lead. Tomkinson and Foley paired up to get back-to-back blocks which lifted USC to its largest lead at 23-12 before it finished out an 11-point win.

UP NEXT

USC hosts 19th-ranked Princeton (0-0) on Saturday (Jan. 11) at 7 p.m. PT on Big Ten Plus at Galen Center.

MATCH NOTES

The Trojans improved to 35-21 in season openers; 7-3 under 10th-year head coach Jeff Nygaard.
USC and Daemen met for the first time.

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.