USC
UCLA
Men's Volleyball Upsets No. 1 UCLA In Five Sets
February 05, 2000 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 5, 2000
LOS ANGELES - USC's streak-busting over UCLA continues!
Three months ago, the Trojan football team snapped an 8-game losing streak to the Bruins.
Last month, Troy's men's basketball team ended a 10-game losing skid to UCLA.
And on Friday (Feb. 4), the No. 5-ranked USC men's volleyball team upset top-ranked UCLA, 13-15, 15-10, 6-15, 15-6, 15-11, to break a 13-match losing streak to its crosstown rival.
It was USC's first regulation-match win over the Bruins since 1991 and, coming in front of 2,287 fans in Pauley Pavilion, Troy's first victory in Pauley since 1990.
The match doubled as a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest and as the 23rd annual Kilgour Cup. It was USC's first-ever win in the Kilgour Cup after seven losses (all to the Bruins) and it was only UCLA's third Kilgour Cup defeat in 22 outings (the other losses were to Long Beach State in the early 1990s).
USC improved to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the MPSF, while UCLA suffered its first loss of 2000, falling to 9-1 overall and 3-1 in the MPSF.
Brook Billings had 33 kills and 17 digs, both match highs, to lead Troy. Three other Trojans had double figures in kills: Eli Fairfield (19), Beau Rawi (16) while hitting .448 and Trevor Julian (15). Fairfield also had 15 digs, Rawi added a match-best 6 blocks and Julian led USC with 3 aces.
For UCLA, Evan Thatcher had 21 kills off the bench, Seth Burnham had 17 kills while hitting .483, Mark Williams had 14 kills (hitting .444) and a match-high 6 aces, and Scott Morrow had 11 kills and 5 blocks
Even though USC handily lost the third game of the match, USC coach Pat Powers felt his team took control of the contest late in that game.
"The key to the match was in the third game," said Powers. "They were blowing us out early on, but we came back strong at the end of that game and carried over that strong play into the fourth game. When we were blowing them out in the fourth game, they couldn't respond in a similar fashion and we stayed in control in the decisive fifth game."
USC next hosts San Diego State on Wednesday (Feb. 9) in a 7 p.m. MPSF match in the North Gym on campus, then hosts non-conference foe La Verne on Friday (Feb. 11), also at 7 p.m. in the North Gym. Earlier this year, the Trojans defeated San Diego State on the road in 4 games.
