USC
Long Beach State
No. 1 USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps Long Beach State
January 20, 2010 | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 20, 2010
All-American Murphy Troy had 20 kills and 6 digs to lead the No. 1-ranked USC men's volleyball team to 30-28, 31-29, 30-23 sweep over No. 8 Long Beach State in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Wednesday (Jan. 20) at USC's Galen Center.
The Trojans--playing their first home match of the season--improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the MPSF, while the 49ers dropped to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in MPSF play. USC's 5-1 mark equalled its start in 2009 when the Trojans advanced to the NCAA championship match, while the 3-0 league start is its best since 2001.
Troy hit .389 in the match. Teammate Tri Bourne added 11 kills while hitting .421 and had 7 digs, while Tony Ciarelli also had 11 kills with 8 digs, 3 blocks and 2 aces. Hunter Current had 5 blocks, Andrew Pizula had a match-best 12 digs and Riley McKibbin had 9 digs.
For Long Beach State, Dean Bittner had 20 kills (hitting .356), 6 digs and 3 blocks, Jim Baughman had 10 kills, Tommy Pestolesi had 8 kills, 8 digs and 4 blocks and Dan Alexander had 8 kills (hitting .385) and 4 blocks.
USC outhit LBSU, .303 to .262, and had more digs (46 to 32), but the 49ers outblocked the Trojans, 10 to 7.
USC jumped out to an early 4-1 edge in the first set and never surrendered the lead. LBSU controlled most of the second set until late when 3 straight kills by Troy gave USC the narrow victory despite the 49ers' .325 hitting percentage and 5.5 blocks. USC scored 3 consecutive points to open up an 11-8 margin in the third set and used a .421 hitting mark to close out the match.
USC next hosts No. 12 UC San Diego on Friday (Jan. 22) in a 7 p.m. MPSF contest in the Galen Center.
