USC
UC Irvine
UC Irvine Men's Volleyball Outlasts USC In 5 Sets
February 18, 2009 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 18, 2009
Jon Steller got 14 kills off the bench to spark the No. 2-ranked UC Irvine men's volleyball team to a 30-25, 23-30, 30-25, 37-39, 15-11 win over No. 5 USC in the Galen Center in a battle for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation lead on Wednesday (Feb. 18).
In posting its ninth consecutive win over the Trojans, UC Irvine improved to 12-2 overall and maintained its hold on first place in the MPSF at 8-1 in league play. USC dropped to 9-3 overall and 6-2 in the MPSF.
Four Trojans were in double figures in kills: Murphy Troy had 29, Tony Ciarelli had 17 (hitting .364) with 7 digs and 4 blocks, Austin Zahn had 13 kills while hitting .611 and Hunter Current had 10 kills and 4 blocks. Luke Morris added a match-high 13 digs.
For the Anteaters, Taylor Wilson had 19 kills while hitting .366 and added 6 blocks, while Carson Clark had 13 kills (hitting .500) and 6 digs. Brent Asuka had 9 digs, Austin D'Amore had 6 blocks off the bench and Kevin Wynne served 5 aces.
Both teams hit over .300, with USC at .314 and UCI at .301, and both had 40-plus digs (USC's 48 and UCI's 41). The Anteaters had 10.5 blocks to the Trojans' 9.5. UCI served 10 aces to go along with 22 serving errors, while USC recorded 5 aces but had 29 serving errors.
UC Irvine broke out from an 8-8 tie in the first set with 3 unanswered points and USC could never catch up as the Anteaters hit at a .500 clip with just 1 hitting error. In the second set, USC got off to a quick 6-3 start and then extended it to 11-4 while hitting .593. After trailing for most of the third set, UCI forged a late 28-24 cushion on the strength of .433 hitting to capture that set. After USC overcame a 7-2 deficit in the fourth set, the Trojans caught up at 10-10 and then the set seesawed throughout until a Zahn kill and a UCI hitting error ended it. UC Irvine built a 7-3 edge in the fifth set and USC could never get closer than 2 points as Steller ended the match with a kill.
USC next hosts No. 8 UCLA in an MPSF match on Friday (Feb. 20) at 7 p.m. in the Galen Center.
