No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Opens February With Big West Foes

Wednesday, February 4

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

USC

CSUN

Buy Tickets

USC men's volleyball middle blocker Wesley Smith goes up to attack the ball during a match against Fort Valley State at Galen Center

Photo by: Kevin Kim

No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Opens February With Big West Foes

February 02, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

#USCMVB Notebook (Feb. 2)2026 Schedule Buy Tickets

The Trojans take on No. 16 CSUN and No. 15 UC Santa Barbara at Galen Center this week

LOS ANGELES – No. 4 USC men's volleyball (5-0) opens February as host to a pair of Big West foes. No. 16 CSUN (7-1) visits Galen Center for a Wednesday-night meeting (Feb. 4) at 7 p.m. PT and then No. 15 UC Santa Barbara (5-3) comes in for a Saturday (Feb. 7) bout at 5 p.m. Both matches will be shown live on Big Ten Plus streams. The Trojans have opened their third straight season with a 5-0 record and are 4-0 on their home floor this spring.

THIS WEEK
MATCH #6 • Wednesday, February 4 • 7 p.m. PT
No. 4 USC (5-0) vs. No. 16 CSUN (7-1)
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 53-35 (.602)
LAST MEETING: W 3-1 (Jan. 22, 2025 • Northridge, Calif.)
STREAK: Won 1 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 6-4
TV/STREAM: B1G+ (PxP Andrew Giesler, Analyst Patrick O'Leary, and Sideline Makena Arteaga)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: GoMatadors.com

MATCH #7 • Saturday, February 7 • 5 p.m. PT
No. 4 USC (5-0) vs. No. 15 UC Santa Barbara (5-3)
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 59-57 (.509)
LAST MEETING: W 3-2 (Jan. 19, 2023 • Galen Center)
STREAK: Won 1 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 5-5
TV/STREAM: B1G+ (PxP Kasey Kazliner, Analyst Liam Irvin, and Sideline Makena Arteaga)
OPPONENT WEBSITE: UCSBGauchos.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 507th appearance in the national poll.
The Trojans are 4-0 at Galen Center. Last year, USC won 11 home matches and will play 16 times at home in 2026. In fact, the Trojans play in Southern California for all but two regular-season matches (at BYU, April 10-11).
USC is 5-0 for the third straight season and for the fourth time under Nygaard (2022, '24, '25); the fourth time in the last five seasons.
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 was chosen for MPSF/Molten Offensive Player of the Week honors for the sixth time in his career. He ranks second in the MPSF and NCAA for kills (4.44 kps) and points (5.42 pps).

LAST TIME OUT: The Trojans fought tooth and nail for a five-set win over 13th-ranked Ohio State last Friday (Jan. 30). USC got 20 kills from Dillon Klein, 12 from Sterling Foley, and 10 each from Wesley Smith and Noah Roberts. The Trojans put up 14.5 blocks to outpace the Buckeye attack, .333 to .219. Caleb Blanchette—the MPSF leader for digs—recorded his sixth-career double-double with 32 assists and a career-high 14 digs. The win pushed the Trojans to 5-0 for the third consecutive season and for the fourth time under head coach Jeff Nygaard.

POLL POSITION: The Trojans ranked No. 5 in the AVCA Preseason Poll. USC ranks fourth in the Feb. 2 poll for the Trojans' 507th 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 212 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 128 wins at USC. In 2025, he led the Trojans to their highest ranking in over a decade.

POW-WOW: Five different Trojans have collected MPSF/Molten Player of the Week honors. OH Dillon Klein was named Offensive Player of the Week for the first USC award of 2026 on Feb. 2 and for the sixth of his career. He was chosen for offensive and defensive honors a total of three times in 2025. Among others who also won awards last season are MB Parker Tomkinson (twice), LIB Johnny Dykstra, S Caleb Blanchette, and OPP Sterling Foley. Klein has collected six-career weekly honors; five offensive and one defensive. USC has swept the weekly awards five times since March 7, 2022.

1K DK: OH Dillon Klein has reached double-digit kills in 66 of 83 career matches and reached the 20-kill mark nine times. He reached 1,000 career kills on April 17, 2025, in a match at UCLA and now has 1,125 career kills and counting.

UPPER CLASS: Through five matches, OH Dillon Klein ranks second in both the MPSF and the NCAA for points per set (5.42 pps) and kills per set at 4.44 kps. Through three, he also led the NCAA in hitting percentage.

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 2,149-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.