University Southern California Trojans
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USC Fall Tournament
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USC Men's Volleyball Hosts Fall Tourney On Saturday
November 01, 2018 | Men's Volleyball, Features
The USC men's volleyball team will host the pre-season 2018 USC Fall Tournament this Saturday (Nov. 10) in the Galen Center Pavilion.
The Trojans will be joined by Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponents UCLA, Stanford, Pepperdine and Concordia, plus non-conference foes UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and UC San Diego.
Admission is free. The Galen Center Pavilion is adjacent to the Galen Center, with the volleyball courts on the upstairs level.
Competition begins at 8:30 a.m. with the first 3 matches of the tourney and continues with matches at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and the final matches at 4 p.m.
USC will sport 2 teams, a Cardinal squad and a Gold team (UCLA, Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara also will have split squads). USC Cardinal faces Cal State Northridge at 8:30 a.m., UC San Diego at 11:30 a.m. and UC Santa Barbara Blue at 4 p.m. USC Gold plays Stanford at 10 a.m., Pepperdine Orange at 1 p.m. and UCLA Gold at 4 p.m.
The other matches at 8:30 a.m. are UC Santa Barbara Gold vs. UCLA Blue and UCLA Gold vs. Pepperdine Orange. At 10 a.m., it's UC Santa Barbara Blue vs. UC San Diego and Pepperdine Blue vs. Concordia. UCLA Gold vs. Concordia and UC Santa Barbara Gold vs. Pepperdine will play at 11:30 a.m. Then at 1 p.m., it's UC Santa Barbara Blue vs. Cal State Northridge and Pepperdine Blue vs. UCLA Blue. Cal State Northridge vs. UC San Diego, UCLA Blue vs. Concordia and Pepperdine Orange vs. Stanford start at 2:45 p.m. In the 4 p.m. slot, it's UC Santa Barbara Gold vs. Pepperdine Blue.
All matches will be the best of 3 sets, with the first 2 sets played to 25 points and the third set to 15 points.
USC is looking to improve upon its 2018 showing, when it went 8-20 overall (the program's most losses since 2005). But the Trojans did post a pair of big late-season upsets in 2018, defeating No. 3 UCLA (the NCAA runnerup) and then No. 5 Pepperdine (in a road MPSF Tournament quarterfinal). Troy returns 10 lettermen, including 5 starters: outside hitters Jack Wyett (2018 All-American honorable mention and All-MPSF first team), Gianluca Grasso (2018 All-MPSF honorable mention and MPSF All-Tourney) and Ryan Moss (2018 All-MPSF honorable mention), along with 2018 MPSF All-Freshman team members Sam Lewis at middle blocker (he captained the USA Junior National Team this past summer) and libero Cole Paxson. Five talented freshmen and a junior college transfer also will look to contribute in 2019.
After Saturday's USC Fall Tournament, the Trojans continue their pre-season competition by playing at the UCLA SAC Tournament on Nov. 16 and 17 and then they have an Alumni match on Dec. 29. Troy begins its 2019 regular season with a non-conference home match against Alberta on Jan. 4 and then plays in the Outrigger Resorts Invitational in Hawaii on Jan. 10-12 versus Concordia, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Hawaii.
