No. 5 USC Men's Volleyball Dominates Dominican in 3-0 Sweep

Saturday, February 8

Los Angeles, Calif.

12:00 p.m. PT

USC

9-0,0-0MPSF

Dominican

1-6,0-0ECC

Dominican (NY)

Southern California

Photo by: Kate Tsao

No. 5 USC Men's Volleyball Dominates Dominican in 3-0 Sweep

February 08, 2025 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Highlights

The Trojans set a new school record with .691 hitting in a victory over the Chargers

LOS ANGELES – No. 5 USC men's volleyball (9-0) swept Dominican (1-6) in three sets (25-11, 25-9, 25-15) at the Galen Center Pavilion on Saturday, Feb. 8. The Trojans set a new school record with .691 hitting and improved to 9-0 to start a season for the first time since 1991.

KEY PLAYERS

Jr. OH Dillon Klein only saw action in the first set but led all players with nine kills on 10 swings to hit .900 and had two digs.
So. S Caleb Blanchette dished out 26 assists to help set USC to its ninth straight match hitting plus-300. The Trojans hit an all-time single-match high .691 (42k, 4e, 55att) against the Chargers for the team's fifth contest over the .450 mark. Blanchette also had two digs and served two of the team's eight aces.
Fr. OH Sterling Foley had six kills on nine swings to hit .667 and led all players with six digs and had two service aces.
Redshirt Sr. OPP Jack Deuchar saw his first action of the season and scored six kills (1e, 9att) to hit .556 with a pair of aces.
Sr. MB Markus Olsson scored five kills on just five swings (1.000) and had a match-high four blocks to go with two digs.
Redshirt So. OPP Noah Roberts posted six kills (2e, 10att) and hit .400 to go with a dig.
Fr. OH Christian Connell had five kills (1e, 6att) and hit .667 with three digs and had a block and a dig.
For the Chargers, Brad Krapf led with eight kills (4e, 24att, .167). Jamel Toste had 15 assists and four digs. Daniel Malcolm had three kills and two digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Trojans racked up a 25-11 win in the first set behind .762 hitting on 17 kills (1e, 21att). Klein scored all nine of his kills in the opening frame and needed just 10 swings to do it. Roberts added four kills and Foley had three to go with three digs. Dominican hit .211 with six kills (2e) on 19 attacks.
USC went up, 2-0, with a 25-9 win in the second. Parker Tomkinson, Foley, and Deuchar all collected three kills apiece to help the Trojans hit .765 with 14 kills (1e) on 17 swings. Dominican also attacked 17 times but committed six errors to reach four kills and registered a negative .087 hitting percentage.
Connell had four of his kills in the third to power the Trojans to a .529 hitting percentage (11k, 2e, 17att) and USC collected three blocks to hold Dominican to a .185 rate with 10 kills (5e) on 27 attacks. Deuchar had three kills while Riley Haine and Olsson had two kills apiece.

UP NEXT

USC faces No. 2 UC Irvine (7-0) in a pair of matches next week; first at Bren Events Center in Irvine on Wednesday (Feb. 12) in a 6 p.m. PT match that will be shown on ESPN+. The teams then meet in a rematch on Friday (Feb. 14) at 7 p.m. PT at Galen Center on Big Ten Plus.

MATCH NOTES

USC and Dominican met for the first time.
The Trojans start the season 9-0 for the first time under 10th-year head coach Jeff Nygaard and for the first time since 1991 when USC started 28-0 under Jim McLaughlin and finished 34-2 as the NCAA runner-up to Long Beach State.
The Trojans set a new school record with a .691 hitting percentage, which also ties for the third highest in MPSF history.
USC has hit over .450 for the fifth time and over .300 for the ninth straight time this season.
USC's nine-match win streak is its longest under Nygaard and the longest since the Trojans won 18 in a row in 2012 under head coach Bill Ferguson.

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.