USC Men's Volleyball Set to Face Vanguard to Open MPSF Tourney

Wednesday, April 22

Provo, Utah

1:30 p.m. MT / 12:30 p.m. PT

USC

Vanguard

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USC men's volleyball opposite hitter Cooper Keane goes up to hit the ball during a match at Galen Center

Photo by: Kevin Kim

USC Men's Volleyball Set to Face Vanguard to Open MPSF Tourney

April 20, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

#USCMVB MPSF Tournament Notebook (April 20)Live Stats Buy Tickets

The third-seeded Trojans take on the Lions in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, April 22

LOS ANGELES – No. 6 USC (17-6) earned the third seed and takes on sixth-seed Vanguard (12-13) in the quarterfinals of the 2026 MPSF Tournament at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah. The Trojans and Lions meet for first serve at 1:30 p.m. MT (12:30 p.m. PT) on Wednesday, April 22, and will be shown live on Big Ten Plus. The four quarterfinal matches (April 22) and two semifinal matches (April 23) will be carried by Big Ten Plus. The MPSF championship match on Saturday (April 25) will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network with a 7 p.m. MT start. USC reached the title match a year ago but fell to tournament host Pepperdine in heartbreaking fashion at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Trojans are 17-21 all-time in MPSF tournament contests and seek their first league title since 2009.

2026 MPSF CHAMPIONSHIP
George Albert Smith Fieldhouse • Provo, Utah
TV/STREAM: B1G+ (Quarterfinals & Semifinals) and B1G Network (Championship)

MATCH #24 • Wednesday, April 22 • 1:30 p.m. MT
[3] No. 6 USC (17-6) vs. [6] Vanguard (12-13)

SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 4-0 (1.000)
LAST MEETING: W 3-0 (Jan. 15, 2026 • Costa Mesa, Calif.)
STREAK: Won 4 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 4-0

OPPONENT WEBSITE: VanguardLions.com
TOURNAMENT WEBSITE: MPSports.org

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 sixth in the AVCA Coaches Poll; the program's 518th appearance in the national poll.
USC is 17-21 all-time in the MPSF tournament. The Trojans were runner-up to Pepperdine last spring and last won the tournament championship in 2009.
The Trojans lead the MPSF in blocks (2.55 bps), digs (8.58 dps) and opponent hitting percentage (.236). USC is second in kills (12.79 kps) and is third in hitting percentage (.344) and assists (11.93 aps).
USC is 4-3 on the road this spring and will play its first neutral-site match when it faces the Lions in the MPSF quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Sr. OH Dillon Klein ranks second in the MPSF for kills (4.10 kps, 2nd in the NCAA) and points (4.82 pps, 2nd NCAA). He has reached double-digit kills in 19 of 21 matches and has had six contests with 20 or more kills.
Dillon Klein is one of eight semifinalists for the AVCA's National Player of the Year award. Four finalists will be selected next week.
So. MB Parker Tomkinson leads the MPSF in blocks (1.16 bps). Redshirt So. MB Wesley Smith is second (1.13 bps) which ranks seventh in the NCAA.
Two Trojans rank in the top four of the MPSF for digs. Jr. S Caleb Blanchette is second with 1.79 dps and So. LIB Johnny Dykstra is fifth with 1.65 dps.

LAST TIME OUT: The Trojans—without starting MB Wesley Smith for both matches and without starting OPP Cooper Keane for one and OH Sterling Foley for another—dropped a pair of 3-0 decisions to No. 4 Pepperdine to conclude the regular season. USC only had starting setter Caleb Blanchette for one set in the road match against the Waves due to illness. Despite the many shifts in on-court lineups, the Trojans fought the Waves hard in the home bout and got 18.5 points from Dillon Klein and 16.5 from Foley. Parker Tomkinson had six blocks in the first meeting and had two in just a little over one set of action in the rematch. The two losses locked the Trojans into third place in the final MPSF standings and handed the Waves a share of the conference regular-season title with UCLA.

POLL POSITION: The Trojans ranked No. 5 in the AVCA Preseason Poll. USC now ranks sixth in the April 20 poll for the Trojans' 518th time in the poll. Last season, USC 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 221 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 140 wins at USC. In 2025, he led the Trojans to their highest ranking in over a decade. He became the fourth winningest coach in school history and needs just two wins to match Jim McLaughlin (142) for third all-time. Bob Yoder (211 wins; 1982-89) and Bill Ferguson (150 wins; 2007-15) are USC's all-time leaders in career wins.

READY-SET: The Trojans' 22-set win streak which began on March 12 and remained intact until a loss to Stanford on April 4 is the longest under head coach Jeff Nygaard and set a new school record, which had stood since 1991. USC's sweeps of Menlo (March 27-28) helped the Trojans reach 18 in a row, which eclipsed a run of 16 sets from March 10-31, 2012; the previous set-streak record during the rally-scoring era (since 2001). Including the sideout scoring era, the previous school record was 21 sets in a row in 1991.

1K DK: OH Dillon Klein has reached double-digit kills in 80 of 100 career matches including getting to the 20-kill mark 13 times. He recorded 1,000 career kills on April 17, 2025, in a match at UCLA and now has 1,373 career kills and counting.

UPPER CLASS: OH Dillon Klein ranks second in the MPSF for points per set (4.82 pps, 2nd in the NCAA) and kills per set at 4.10 kps (2nd in the NCAA). Through the first three matches of the season, he was also the NCAA leader in hitting percentage but is now fourth in the MPSF and is 14th in the nation at .369.

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 2,749-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.

BLOCKHEADS: MB Wesley Smith and MB Parker Tomkinson are the top two blockers in the MPSF. Tomkinson's 1.16 blocks per set leads the conference while Smith's 1.13blocks per set ranks second (7th, NCAA).

JOHNNY ON THE SPOT: LIB Johnny Dykstra ranks fifth in the MPSF for digs (1.65 dps). As a freshman in 2025, he produced nine matches in double-digit digs and ranked 18th in the nation for digs, third best among the nation's freshmen. Dykstra logged his first two double-digit digs matches against UCLA this spring. He put up a career-high 19 digs in the first meeting between the crosstown rivals and is up to 12-career matches in double-digit digs.

RECORD HIGH: USC set a single-match hitting record in 2025 with a .691 percentage against Dominican (Feb. 8). This spring, the Trojans have hit .300 or better 18 times with 10times over .350 and eight matches north of .400; four times over .450. USC hit a season-best .559 hitting against Concordia on March 12.

DOUBLE-UP: Four current Trojans have recorded double-doubles in their careers led by S Caleb Blanchette who has had eight. He is followed by OH Dillon Klein who has four-career double-doubles, OH Sterling Foley (2) and S Ryan Sprague (2) have two each.

LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: The Trojans are 32-36 all-time in conference and regional playoffs dating back to 1971, which includes seven playoff championships. In the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) tournament, USC is 17-21 and last won the MPSF tourney title in 2009.