No. 5 USC Men's Volleyball Drops Five-Set Marathon to No. 2 UC Irvine

Wednesday, February 12

Irvine, Calif.

6:00 p.m. PT

USC

9-1,0-0MPSF

UC Irvine

9-0,0-0Big West

Southern California

UC Irvine

Photo by: Kate Tsao

No. 5 USC Men's Volleyball Drops Five-Set Marathon to No. 2 UC Irvine

February 12, 2025 | Men's Volleyball

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Four Trojans scored in double digits in a match that had 62 ties and 22 lead changes

IRVINE, Calif. – The No. 5 USC men's volleyball team (9-1) fell to No. 2 UC Irvine (9-0) in a hard-fought five-set decision (25-20, 26-28, 25-21, 18-25, 26-24) at Bren Events Center on Wednesday, Feb. 12. It took 62 ties and 22 lead changes to decide a winner, but the loss snapped the Trojans' nine-match win streak and is the first defeat of the season for USC.

KEY PLAYERS

Fr. OH Sterling Foley had career highs of 16 kills (4e, 36att) and 17.5 points on .333 hitting to go with seven digs, three blocks and three assists.
Jr. OH Dillon Klein led the Trojans in scoring with 21.5 points collected on 18 kills, two service aces and three blocks. It was his 47th-career match in double-digit kills. Klein also had 11 digs to log his second-career double-double.
So. S Caleb Blanchette matched his career high with 61 assists and set USC to its 10th straight match hitting plus-300 (.311). He also had nine digs, a service ace, and a block.
Fr. MB Parker Tomkinson racked up 10 kills (2e, 14att) on .500 hitting and had three blocks and three digs.
Redshirt Sr. OPP Jack Deuchar locked up a season-high 16 kills (4e, 32att) on .375 hitting and had three digs and a block.
Redshirt So. OPP Noah Roberts put up eight kills (4e, 18att, .222) to go with four digs and a block.
Fr. LIB Johnny Dykstra dug up a season- and career-high 15 digs and added three assists.
Sr. MB Markus Olsson had five kills (0e, 9att) to hit .556 and recorded three blocks, a dig and an assist.
For the Anteaters, Nolan Flexen led with a career-high 27 kills to go with 12 digs and five blocks for 30.5 points. Hilir Henno put up 24 kills with nine digs and five blocks. Micah Goss and Andon Kiriakou each had 10 kills apiece. Joe Karlous put up 73 assists and had 15 digs for the double-double with four blocks.

HOW IT HAPPENED

USC hit north of .300 for the 10th time in 10 matches and reached double-digit blocks (10.0) for the sixth time. The Trojans registered season highs in kills (75), attacks (167), digs (58), and assists (71). The match was tied 62 times and the lead changed hands 22 times through the course of the five sets.
The Anteaters never trailed in the opening set, but the Trojans pulled into a 15-all tie before UC Irvine rolled to a 25-20 win. UCI put up five blocks and forced USC to hit .087 in the frame. The Trojans were led by a three-kill performance from Foley while the Anteaters got three apiece from Flexen, Henno, and Kiriakou on .333 hitting.
USC led set two by as many as three early on but were quickly caught at eight-all. From there, the teams tied at every point for 19 ties before the Trojans evened the match on back-to-back Foley kills in a 28-26 win. When the dust had settled, USC had collected 20 kills (4e) on 42 swings to hit .381 while the Anteaters finished with 19 kills (6e) on 45 attempts. UCI racked up four more blocks for each of the Trojans' errors while USC had two blocks in the set.
UC Irvine took a three-point lead in the third at 14-11, but the Trojans scored three in a row to knot things up for the ninth of what would be 14 times. USC took its last lead at 16-15 and fought to a 19-all tie before the Anteaters got a pair of kills from Henno and one more from Flexen to finish off a 25-21 win. USC hit .324 in the third with 14 kills (2e) on 37 swings while the Anteaters had 18 kills (2e) on 38 attempts for a .421 hitting rate.
In the most lopsided of the first four sets, the Trojans never trailed and rolled to a 25-18 win on 14 kills (4e, 32att) and .312 hitting led by four kills apiece from Foley and Deuchar. Olsson came off the bench to score three of his kills while Klejn had two on five swings. Both teams put up three blocks each, but the Trojans held the Anteaters to a .156 hitting rate (11k, 63) on 32 attacks to send the match to the fifth set.
In a fifth set that had more ties (23) than any other set in the match, the Anteaters triumphed, 26-24, in what is the longest fifth set in USC program history. Previously, the Trojans played to a 21-19 decision in one fifth set in 2003. UCI reached match-point first at 14-13, but the Trojans saved the point and had eight chances to put the match away. The Anteaters had their fourth match point at 25-24 to finish off the win. In a back-and-forth heavyweight battle, Deuchar had seven kills and Klein scored five. On the other side of the net, Henno had eight and Flexen poured in seven. UCI hit .519 in the fifth with 16 kills (2e) on 27 swings. USC hit .364 with 17 kills (5e, 33att) and went up against 4.5 blocks including the block to end the match on an attack by Deuchar.

UP NEXT

USC and UC Irvine meet in a rematch on Friday (Feb. 14) at 7 p.m. PT at Galen Center. The match will be shown live on Big Ten Plus. Fans can visit USCTrojans.com for information on the Hearts and Hits promotion. The match is also a Kids Free Fridays match. All fans 18 & under may claim a complimentary ticket from the box office on the day of the match.

MATCH NOTES

USC fell to 43-37 all-time against UC Irvine and dropped a road five-setter to the Anteaters for the second straight year.
The Trojans' 9-0 start to the season was the best since 1991 when USC started 28-0 under Jim McLaughlin and finished 34-2 as the NCAA runner-up to Long Beach State.
USC hit over .300 for the 10th straight time this season.

For more information on the USC men's volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/MVB. Fans of the Trojans can follow @USCMensVolley on Facebook, X, and Instagram.