No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Set for Home-and-Home with No. 5 UC Irvine

Wednesday, February 11

Irvine, Calif.

6:00 p.m. PT

USC

UC Irvine

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USC men's volleyball OPP Noah Roberts goes up to attack the ball during a match against UC Santa Barbara at Galen Center

Photo by: Kevin Kim

No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Set for Home-and-Home with No. 5 UC Irvine

February 10, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

#USCMVB Notebook (Feb. 10)2026 USC Schedule Buy Tickets

The Trojans are 7-0 for the second straight year

LOS ANGELES – No. 4 USC men's volleyball (7-0) looks to extend its seven-match win streak when the Trojans take on No. 5 UC Irvine (11-0) in a home-and-home series this week. The teams meet at Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif., for a midweek bout on Wednesday (Feb. 11) at 6 p.m. PT and then head to Galen Center for the rematch on Friday (Feb. 13) at 7 p.m. Only the match at USC will be broadcast and will be shown live on Big Ten Plus. The Trojans are 7-0 for the second time in two seasons and reached 9-0 in 2025 before they ran into the Anteaters, who dealt USC its first loss of the spring in a stunning five-set decision in Irvine and then swept the Trojans at Galen Center on Valentine's night. The fifth set in Irvine ended at 26-24 and pushed the match to nearly three hours.

THIS WEEK
No. 4 USC (7-0, 0-0 MPSF) vs. No. 5 UC Irvine (11-0, 0-0 Big West)

MATCH #8 • Wednesday, February 11 • 6 p.m. PT
Bren Events Center • Irvine, Calif.
TV/STREAM: None

MATCH #9 • Friday, February 13 • 7 p.m. PT
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
TV/STREAM: B1G+ (PxP Andrew Giesler, Analyst Liam Irvin, and Sideline Aidan Pham)

SERIES RECORD: USC leads, 43-38 (.530)
LAST MEETING: L 3-0 (Feb. 14, 2025 • Galen Center)
STREAK: Lost 2 • LAST 10 MEETINGS: 4-6
OPPONENT WEBSITE: UCIrvineSports.com

FIRST SERVE (TL;DR)

USC is led by 11th-year head coach Jeff Nygaard, a three-time Olympian in indoor and beach volleyball and a two-time NCAA champion.
The Trojans are ranked fourth in the AVCA Coaches Poll; the program's 508th appearance in the national poll.
The Trojans are 6-0 at Galen Center. Last year, USC won 11 home matches and will play 16 times at home in 2026. In fact, the Trojans play in Southern California for all but two regular-season matches (at BYU, April 10-11).
USC is 7-0 for the second straight season. Last year, the Trojans were 9-0 before it lost twice to UC Irvine, once on the road and once at home.
USC returns five players in 2026 that were recognized by the AVCA All-America committee in 2025 including first-team choice OH Dillon Klein and second-team MB Parker Tomkinson. S Caleb Blanchette, OH Sterling Foley, and LIB Johnny Dykstra each received All-America honorable mention.
Redshirt So. MB Wesley Smith was chosen for MPSF/Molten Defensive Player of the Week honors for the second time in his career. He ranks third in the MPSF for both blocks (1.27 bps) and hitting percentage (.524).

LAST TIME OUT: The Trojans collected wins over ranked Big West foes to move to 7-0 for the second consecutive season under head coach Jeff Nygaard. USC went the distance to get a five-set win over 16th-ranked CSUN and then swept No. 15 UC Santa Barbara for the team's fourth straight-set win of the spring. Four Trojans reached double-digit kills in the win over the Matadors led by Dillon Klein. Noah Roberts (12), Sterling Foley (11), and Wesley Smith (10) also reached double digits and helped USC hit .333. Klein had 12 more kills in the win over the Gauchos while Roberts added 10 for a Trojan squad that hit .333 again. This time, USC logged its third match in double-digit blocks and had 13.5 to hold the UCSB attack to a .100 hitting percentage.

POLL POSITION: The Trojans ranked No. 5 in the AVCA Preseason Poll. USC ranks fourth in the Feb. 9 poll for the Trojans' 508th time in the coaches poll. Last season, the Trojans reached fifth on Feb. 3 to mark their highest position since they were also ranked No. 5 in 2022 (April 18). On March 10, 2025, USC's spot at No. 5 marked the 200th time the Trojans had been ranked in the poll's top five; now 213 times. The Trojans reached the top three (March 24, 2025) for the first time in over 10 years and were previously ranked as high as third on Feb. 16, 2015.

EXTENDED: 11th-year head coach Jeff Nygaard had his contract extended through the 2028 season. He is the longest-tenured coach in program history and has collected 130 wins at USC. In 2025, he led the Trojans to their highest ranking in over a decade.

POW-WOW: Six different Trojans have collected MPSF/Molten Player of the Week honors. OH Dillon Klein was named Offensive Player of the Week for the first USC award of 2026 on Feb. 2 and for the sixth of his career. He was chosen for offensive and defensive honors a total of three times in 2025. MB Wesley Smith was chosen for his second-career Defensive Player of the Week award on Feb. 9. He was also chosen for the same honor as a freshman in 2024. Among others who won awards last season are MB Parker Tomkinson (twice), LIB Johnny Dykstra, S Caleb Blanchette, and OH Sterling Foley. Klein has collected six-career weekly honors; five offensive and one defensive. USC has swept the weekly awards five times since March 7, 2022.

1K DK: OH Dillon Klein has reached double-digit kills in 68 of 85 career matches and reached the 20-kill mark nine times. He reached 1,000 career kills on April 17, 2025, in a match at UCLA and now has 1,150 career kills and counting.

UPPER CLASS: Through seven matches, OH Dillon Klein ranks third in the MPSF for points per set (4.83 pps, 6th in the NCAA) and kills per set at 4.04 kps (7th in the NCAA). Through three matches he was the NCAA leader in hitting percentage but is now second in the MPSF and is seventh in the nation at .430.

2K GOLD: S Caleb Blanchette crossed the 2,000-assist mark in his career in the Trojans' season opener against St. Thomas Aquinas (Jan. 10). He dished out 28 assists in a 3-0 win over the Spartans and is now up to 2,221-career assists. In 2025, he led the MPSF—ranked fourth in the NCAA—in assists (10.61 aps) and equaled his career-high (61) twice.

BLOCKHEADS: MB Wesley Smith and MB Parker Tomkinson are amongst the top blockers in the MPSF. Smith's 1.27 blocks per set ranks third (6th in the NCAA) while Tomkinson averages 1.57 blocks per set but is not ranked due to minimum sets played for individual statistical rankings.