No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Hosts No. 13 Ohio State

Friday, January 30

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

USC

Ohio State

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USC men's volleyball libero Johnny Dykstra passes the ball during a match against Fort Valley State at the Galen Center

Photo by: Kevin Kim

No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Hosts No. 13 Ohio State

January 28, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

#USCMVB Notebook (Jan. 28)2026 USC Schedule Buy Tickets

The Trojans are 3-0 at Galen Center this spring

LOS ANGELES – No. 4 USC men's volleyball (4-0) closes the month of January with a home match against 13th-ranked Ohio State (4-1) on Friday, Jan. 30, at Galen Center. The Trojans and Buckeyes will take the floor for a 7 p.m. PT match that will be shown live on a Big Ten Plus stream. USC is undefeated on its home floor this spring (3-0) and will play a total of 16 home matches in 2026. The Trojans opened 2025 as winners of nine straight matches and look to march towards matching that mark when Ohio State visits this weekend.

THIS WEEK
MATCH #5 • Friday, January 30 • 7 p.m. PT
No. 4 USC (4-0) vs. No. 13 Ohio State (4-1)
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 20-9 (.690)
LAST MEETING: W 3-1 (Jan. 31, 2025 • Columbus, Ohio)
STREAK: Won 1 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 3-7
TV/STREAM: B1G+ (PxP Andrew Giesler, Analyst Patrick O'Leary, and Sideline Makena Arteaga)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: OhioStateBuckeyes.com

FIRST SERVE (TL;DR)

USC is led by 11th-year head coach Jeff Nygaard, a three-time Olympian in indoor and beach volleyball and a two-time NCAA champion.
The Trojans are ranked fourth in the AVCA Coaches Poll; the program's 506th appearance in the national poll.
USC plays its highest ranked opponent when No. 13 Ohio State visits. The Trojans own one win over a ranked foe this season (No. 18 Princeton).
The Trojans are 3-0 at Galen Center. Last year, USC won 11 home matches. USC plays 16 times at home in 2026 and plays in Southern California for all but two regular-season matches (at BYU, April 10-11).
USC returns five players in 2026 that were recognized by the AVCA All-America committee in 2025 including first-team choice OH Dillon Klein and second-team MB Parker Tomkinson. S Caleb Blanchette, OH Sterling Foley, and LIB Johnny Dykstra each received All-America honorable mention.
Klein leads the MPSF and all NCAA players in hitting (.589) and points per set (5.58 pps), and is second in the league for kills at 4.62 kps (3rd nationally).
The Trojans lead the MPSF in aces (2.23 saps) and opponent hitting percentage (.187). USC is also second in the MPSF in assists (12.54 aps), kills (13.54 kps), and hitting percentage (.404) and is third for blocks (2.62 bps).

LAST TIME OUT: The Trojans took down Fort Valley State in straight sets (25-14, 25-22, 25-22) to move to 4-0 on the season. Three players totaled 10 kills apiece led by Dillon Klein who had a match-high 14.5 points. Noah Roberts and Wesley Smith also had 10 kills each and Tyler Robinson finished with nine in the winning effort. Despite a slower start, USC came on strong at the finish and hit .306 to outpace a Wildcat attack that hit .108.

POLL POSITION: The Trojans were ranked No. 5 in the AVCA Preseason Poll. USC ranks fourth in the Jan. 26 poll for the Trojans' 506th time in the coaches poll. Last season, the Trojans reached fifth on Feb. 3 to mark their highest position since they were also ranked No. 5 in 2022 (April 18). On March 10, 2025, USC's spot at No. 5 marked the 200th time the Trojans had been ranked in the poll's top five; now 211 times. The Trojans reached the top three (March 24, 2025) for the first time in over 10 years and were previously ranked as high as third on Feb. 16, 2015.

EXTENDED: 11th-year head coach Jeff Nygaard had his contract extended through the 2028 season. He is the longest-tenured coach in program history and has collected 127 wins at USC. In 2025, he led the Trojans to their highest ranking in over a decade.

1K DK: OH Dillon Klein has reached double-digit kills in 65 of 82 career matches and crossed the 20-kill mark eight times. He reached 1,000 career kills on April 17, 2025, in a match at UCLA and now has 1,105 career kills and counting.

UPPER CLASS: Through three matches, OH Dillon Klein leads the MPSF and the NCAA in two statistical categories: hitting percentage (.589) and points per set (5.58 pps). He also ranks second in the league—third in the NCAA—for kills per set at 4.62 kps.

2K GOLD: S Caleb Blanchette crossed the 2,000-assist mark in his career in the Trojans' season opener against St. Thomas Aquinas (Jan. 10). He dished out 28 assists in a 3-0 win over the Spartans and is now up to 2,117-career assists. In 2025, he led the MPSF—ranked fourth in the NCAA—in assists (10.61 aps) and equaled his career-high (61) twice.