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UCLA
USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps UCLA!
January 28, 2007 | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 27, 2007
USC's No. 14-ranked men's volleyball team upset No. 5 UCLA in dominating fashion, 30-19, 31-29, 33-31, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday (Jan. 27).
It was the Trojans' first win at Pauley since 2000 and their first sweep over the Bruins since 1991. USC won for just the 31st time in the 115-match series, but Troy now has beaten UCLA in two of the past three meetings. It also gave new Trojan head coach Bill Ferguson a victory in his debut against the Bruins and their legendary head coach, Al Scates.
The match, which doubled as the 30th annual Kilgour Cup, gave USC 2.5 points in the Lexus Gauntlet standings, the annual all-sports competition between the crosstown rivals. UCLA leads this year's race, 35-12.5.
USC improved to 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the MPSF, while defending NCAA champion UCLA dropped to 3-6 and 1-5.
The victory was one of USC's most impressive ever--not just against the Bruins, but in recent memory. The Trojans hit a blistering .533 with just 4 hitting errors in 92 attempts and they posted 15.5 blocks. UCLA hit just .232 with 2 blocks.
C.J. Schellenberg led USC with a match-high 17 kills while hitting .452, Juan Figueroa had 16 kills (just 1 error) while hitting .625 and he added 7 digs and 4 blocks and Matt Anderson had 14 kills while hitting a blazing .737. Andrew Vernon posted 7 blocks, Jimmy Killian had 6 digs and 5 blocks, Hunter Current had 5 blocks and Luke Morris got a match-leading 9 digs. Schellenberg was the only other Trojan with a hitting error (3).
For UCLA, Garrett Muagututia had 17 kills (hitting .433) and 7 digs, while Brett Perrine had 15 kills.
USC opened up a 4-1 lead in the first game and never surrendered it while hitting .514 with just 1 hitting error to UCLA's .133. Troy had 6.5 blocks in that game and UCLA had just 1.
USC built a 4-point lead early in the second game, but UCLA tied it at 23-23. The Trojans then went up 28-26 only to have the Bruins score the next two points. But a Schellenberg kill and block on consecutive plays closed out that game. USC hit .503 (again with just 1 error) and had 4 more blocks in the game.
In game three, UCLA forged a 17-15 lead, extended it to 24-20 and was up 29-27 before the Trojans scored the next three points to take a 30-29 edge. UCLA then answered with two straight points, but USC scored the match's final three points to send the Trojan bench onto the floor in celebration. Troy hit at a .500 clip in that game and added 5 more blocks.
USC remains on the road next week with MPSF matches at No. 4 UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday (Jan. 31) and No. 10 Cal State Northridge on Friday (Feb. 2), both at 7 p.m.
