No. 5 USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps St. Thomas Aquinas to Open 2026

Saturday, January 10

Los Angeles, Calif.

5:00 p.m. PT

USC

1-0,0-0MPSF

St. Thomas Aquinas

0-2,0-0ECC

St. Thomas Aquinas

Southern California

No. 5 USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps St. Thomas Aquinas to Open 2026

January 10, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

All-American OH Dillon Klein led all players with 12 kills on .750 hitting in a win over the Spartans

LOS ANGELES – The fifth-ranked USC men's volleyball team (1-0) collected a 3-0 win (25-16, 25-15, 25-15) in its season opener over St. Thomas Aquinas (0-2) at Galen Center on Saturday, Jan. 10.

KEY PLAYERS

Sr. OH Dillon Klein led all players with 12 kills (0e, 16att) and hit .750 to go with a service ace, four digs and a pair of assists to total 13.0 points.
Jr. MB Thiago Zamprogno put up a career-high nine kills (0e) on 10 swings in his first match as a Trojan and added four blocks and a service ace for 12.0 points.
Redshirt Jr. OPP Noah Roberts had seven kills (1e, 17att) and hit .353 with two blocks and a service ace.
In his first match since the middle of the 2024 season, redshirt So. MB Wesley Smith returned to the floor, started the match, and recorded three kills (1e, 7att, .286) to go with three blocks (one solo).
So. LIB Johnny Dykstra shared match-high honors with five digs.
Jr. S Caleb Blanchette dished out 28 assists to go with five digs and a pair of blocks.
For the Spartans, Kyran Versteegen led with eight kills and added three digs. Marcus Franck had 19 assists and a dig. Ivaylo Todorov led all players with seven digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED

USC totaled 38 kills and hit .417 (8e) on 72 attacks to outpace the STAC attack, which had 23 kills (19e) on 72 attempts for a .056 hitting rate. The Trojans also had more assists (33-21) and more blocks (7.5-0) than St. Thomas Aquinas. USC had a 7-0 edge in service aces while both teams finished with 22 digs.
The Trojans hit .500 and collected 12 kills (1e) on 22 attempts to claim a 25-16 first-set win. Klein and Foley each contributed three kills apiece while Roberts, Smith, and Zamprogno each had two. USC racked up four of its blocks in the opening frame to help hold the Spartans to a .077 hitting percentage with nine kills and seven errors on 26 swings.
USC hit .370 for a 25-15 win in set two despite five hitting errors (15k, 27att) and got 6-for-6 from Klein and 5-for-5 from Zamprogno. Dykstra collected four of his digs in set two and the Trojans put up one more block to hold St. Thomas Aquinas to .048 hitting (5k, 4e) on 21 attacks.
Another 25-15 win put the sweep in the books as the Trojans hit .391 in set three with 11 kills (2e) on 23 attacks. Klein added three more kills in the third while OH Kahale Clini scored twice on service aces and had three digs in his first action as a Trojan. USC had two more blocks to help hold the Spartans to a .040 hitting rate (9k, 8e) on 25 swings.

UP NEXT

USC opens MPSF play on the road at Vanguard, Thursday (Jan. 15) at the Freed Center for Leadership in Costa Mesa, Calif. The match is set for a 7 p.m. PT start and will be shown live on a Big Ten Plus stream.

MATCH NOTES

USC and St. Thomas Aquinas met for the first time.
The Trojans goes to 36-21 all-time in season openers including an 8-3 mark under 11th-year head coach Jeff Nygaard.

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, TikTok, and Instagram.