USC
UC Irvine
No. 10 UC Irvine Men's Volleyball Beats USC
March 05, 2002 | Men's Volleyball
March 5, 2002
LOS ANGELES - Jarett Jensen had 14 kills and 6 aces, while teammate Erick Helenhi also had 14 kills, to lead the No. 10-ranked UC Irvine men's volleyball team to a 28-30, 30-21, 31-29, 30-23 win over USC in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest on Tuesday (March 5) in the USC North Gym.
The Anteaters improved to 10-9 overall and 5-8 in the MPSF. USC dropped its fifth straight match to fall to 5-16 (its slowest start ever) and 2-13 in the MPSF.
UCI's Jimmy Pelzel added 10 kills and 8 digs, while Brenden Watumull had 6 blocks.
For USC, Brook Billings had a match-high 17 kills and Mark Dusharme added 10 kills, 3 aces and 5 blocks.
In the first game, UCI recovered from a 28-25 deficit to tie it at 28-28 before a Billings kill and an Anteater hitting error gave Troy the win. UCI led 12-9 in the second game before running off 5 consecutive points to gain control while hitting .417 in that game. Jensen had 4 aces as the Anteaters took it from 5-5 in the third game to a 10-5 edge, but USC came back from a 21-13 deficit to tie the game at 28-28 before a block by Monte Tucker and Brenden Watamull and then a Tucker kill gave UCI the win. UCI jumped to a 4-0 lead in the final game and was never threatened, as Pelzel ended the match with a kill.
The Anteaters outhit USC in the match, .259 to .157, and served 12 aces.
USC next hosts No. 3 Pepperdine on Thursday (March 7) at 7 p.m. in the USC North Gym.
