No. 12 Grand Canyon Men's Volleyball Gets First-Ever Win Versus USC

Saturday, February 24

Los Angeles, CA

7:00 PM

USC

4-12, 1-5MPSF

Grand Canyon

12-6, 2-4MPSF

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Grand Canyon	25	20	25	20	15	3
USC	21	25	23	25	12	2

Highlights

Gianluca Grasso

Photo by: Rachel Bennett

February 24, 2018 | Men's Volleyball, Features

Box Score Box Score PDF

Trojans return home on Thursday for non-league match against No. 13 UC Santa Barbara.

Ashton King had 17 kills, 9 blocks and 6 digs to lead the No. 12-ranked Grand Canyon men's volleyball team to its first-ever victory over USC, 25-21, 20-25, 25-23, 20-25, 15-12, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Saturday (Feb. 24) in USC's Galen Center.

Grand Canyon, a first-year member of the MPSF, defeated the Trojans for the first time in 3 series meetings. It was the second night in a row that the Trojans lost to a team for the first time, falling in 4 sets on Friday to Concordia (also a new MPSF member).

The Lopes improved to 12-6 overall in 2018 and 2-4 in the MPSF. The Trojans lost their fifth consecutive match to fall to 4-12 overall and 1-5 in the MPSF.

Ryan Moss and Gianluca Grasso each had 16 kills for USC, with Moss adding 14 digs and Grasso serving 5 aces. Jack Wyett had 9 kills and Kyle Gear had 10 blocks.

King hit .583 for Grand Canyon, while teammate Shalev Saada came off the bench to get 13 kills. Caleb Blazer added 8 blocks, Trevor Weary had 7 blocks, Sky Engleman had 11 digs and Will Schwob had 10 digs.

Neither team hit for a high percentage, with GCU at .180 and USC at .177. The Lopes had 20.5 blocks to the Trojans' 13.0, while USC had more digs (55 to 45).

Grand Canyon used a 3-0 run in the first set to go up 19-16 and USC couldn't catch up as the Lopes notched 6.0 blocks. In the second set, USC scored 3 straight early points to move ahead 5-2, built the margin to 19-11 and then held off the late-charging Lopes as Troy served 4 aces in the set. USC held a 23-20 lead in the third set before Grand Canyon scored the set's final 5 points (the Lopes had 4 aces and 4.5 blocks in the set). USC trailed 12-7 in the fourth set but the Trojans soon after scored 4 straight points to take a 16-15 lead and steadily pulled away while posting 6.0 blocks. Grand Canyon scored the first 3 points of the fifth set and USC couldn't overcome it.

USC remains at home for its next match, hosting non-conference foe No. 13 UC Santa Barbara of the Big West on Thursday (March 1) at 7 p.m. in the Galen Center in a match that was rescheduled from earlier in the season because of the Santa Barbara mudslides.