No. 5 USC Men's Volleyball Blazes Through No. 12 Ball State for 3-0 Sweep

Friday, March 14

Honolulu, Hawai'i

4:00 p.m HT | 7:00 p.m. PT

USC

15-2,4-0MPSF

Ball State

13-8,6-3MIVA

Ball St.

Southern California

USC men's volleyball junior outside hitter Dillon Klein passes a ball during a match at Galen Center.

Photo by: Drake Lee

No. 5 USC Men's Volleyball Blazes Through No. 12 Ball State for 3-0 Sweep

March 14, 2025 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

The Trojans hit .414 and had three players reach double-digit kills in a win over the Cardinals in Hawai’i

HONOLULU – The No. 5 USC men's volleyball team (15-2, 4-0 MPSF) pushed its win streak to six matches with a 3-0 sweep (25-22, 25-17, 25-19) of No. 12 Ball State (13-8) in the Outrigger Invitational at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Friday, March 14. It is the Trojans' eighth win over a ranked opponent this season and is USC's 10th 3-0 sweep.

KEY PLAYERS

So. S Caleb Blanchette guided the Trojans to their 15th match with over .300 hitting (the team's eighth over .400) as he put up 44 assists to go with nine digs, and had two service aces, a kill, and a block.
Jr. OH Dillon Klein led all players with 16 kills (7e, 32att) on .281 hitting to go with four digs, a block, and a service ace. It was his 13th time this season in double-digit kills (54th match of his career).
Redshirt Sr. OPP Jack Deuchar had his fourth match in double-digits and finished with 13 kills (3e, 25att) and .400 hitting.
Fr. OH Sterling Foley reached double-digit points for the 10th time (11.0) with his sixth match in double-digit kills. He finished with 11 kills and had three digs and three assists.
Gr. MB Guy Genis tallied five kills (1e, 7att) and hit .571 with one block and one dig.
Fr. MB Parker Tomkinson registered four kills (1e, 7att) with .429 hitting and picked up three digs to go with two blocks and two service aces for 7.0 points.
Fr. LIB Johnny Dykstra put up seven digs and had one assist.
For the Cardinals, Tinaishe Ndavazocheva led with eight kills. Raje Alleyne had five kills while Wil Basilio, Ryan Louis, and Patrick Rogers had four kills apiece.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Trojans hit north of .300 (.414, 50k, 14e, 87att) for the 15th time in 17 matches and racked up their eighth match with over .400 hitting to outpace Ball State's .253 attack (33k, 13e, 79att). USC had more kills (50-33), assists (48-32), digs (28-17), and service aces (5-0) than the Cardinals and were out-blocked for only the third time this season (5.5-3.0).
USC collected 21 kills and hit .400 (7e, 35att) to claim a 25-22 win in set one. Blanchette dished out 20 assists while Foley led all hitters with seven kills (1e, 8att) and .750 hitting. Klein and Deuchar each added six kills apiece while Tomkinson had two. Klein and Blanchette had three digs each to help USC out-dig Ball State, 10-5. The Cardinals had nine kills (2e) on 22 attempts to register a .318 hitting percentage.
The Trojans put on another hitting clinic to rack up 15 kills on just 27 swings (3e) for a .444 attack percentage in a 25-17 win to take set two. Klein and Deuchar each had four kills apiece while Foley added three as each player reached double-digit kills to end the frame. USC out-dug Ball State, 12-7, in the second and got four digs from Blanchette alone.
Klein led the way with six kills in the third set while Deuchar had three and Genis picked up two to help the Trojans hit .400 (14k, 4e, 25att) in a 25-19 win to seal the sweep. Dykstra had three of his digs in the third while Blanchette put up 10 more assists and had two digs. The Trojans held Ball State to a .154 attack with 11 kills (7e) on 26 attacks.

UP NEXT

USC concludes play at the Outrigger Invitational with a 7 p.m. HT (10 p.m. PT) meeting with third-ranked tourney host Hawai'i (18-1) at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday (March 15). The match will be shown live by Spectrum Sports on the islands and available on ESPN+.

MATCH NOTES

USC improved to 10-2 all-time against Ball State and has won each of the last two meetings.
The Trojans collected their eighth win over a ranked opponent this season.
USC hit over .300 (.414) for the 15th time in 17 matches; and hit better than .400 for the eighth time.
USC registered its 10th 3-0 win this season. The Trojans had nine 3-0 wins combined in 2023 and 2024.

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.