USC
Pacific
No. 1 USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps Pacific
April 02, 2011 | Men's Volleyball
April 2, 2011
Murphy Troy had 12 kills and 4 aces and Tri Bourne added 10 kills to lead the No. 1-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 25-18, 25-15, 25-17 sweep at No. 14 Pacific in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Saturday (April 2), giving the Trojans the outright MPSF regular season championship.
USC, which improved to 18-1 overall and 17-1 in the MPSF, clinched the outright title with 4 league matches still to play: a pair at No. 9 Hawaii on April 8 and 9, followed by home contests against No. 5 UCLA (April 14) and No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (April 16). The Trojans then will enter the MPSF Tournament as the top-seeded team.
It was USC's 12th consecutive overall win (its longest streak since a school-record 30-match winning streak in 1990 and 1991) and its 11th consecutive MPSF victory (its best streak since capturing 18 straight league matches during the 1991 and 1992 seasons).
USC is off to its best overall 19-match start since opening 19-0 in 1991 and its best MPSF 18-match start since being 18-0 in 1986.
Pacific fell to 10-17 overall and 4-15 in the MPSF.
Troy hit .435. Teammate Tony Ciarelli added 6 kills, 6 digs and 2 aces, while Riley McKibbin had 9 digs.
Taylor Hughes led Pacific with 12 kills while hitting .360.
USC outhit the Tigers, .329 to .139, and served 8 aces.
The Trojans got off to a quick 4-1 start in the first set and were never threatened. It was more of the same in the second set, as USC opened a 6-2 lead and Pacific couldn't overcome that. The third set was tied at 6-6 before the Trojans scored 2 unanswered points to forge a lead they never relinquished while hitting .526.
