No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Tops No. 16 CSUN in Five-Set Thriller

Wednesday, February 4

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

USC

6-0,1-0MPSF

CSUN

7-2,0-0Big West

CSUN

Southern California

Photo by: Kevin Kim

No. 4 USC Men's Volleyball Tops No. 16 CSUN in Five-Set Thriller

February 04, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Press Conference

Four Trojans reached double-digit kills in a five-set win over the Matadors

LOS ANGELES – The fourth-ranked USC men's volleyball team (6-0) collected a five-set win (25-19, 25-20, 19-25, 17-25, 15-13) over No. 16 CSUN (7-2) at Galen Center on Wednesday, Feb. 4. The win makes the Trojans 6-0 for the second straight season.

KEY PLAYERS

Redshirt So. MB Wesley Smith led the Trojans with 15.0 points earned on his fourth straight match in double-digit kills. He finished with 10 (1e, 15att) to hit .600 and had six blocks (two solo) and a service ace.
Sr. OH Dillon Klein racked 13 kills and had nine digs in his 67th-career match in double-digit kills.
Redshirt Jr. OPP Noah Roberts had 12 kills (2e, 27att) and hit .370 with two blocks.
So. OH Sterling Foley finished with 11 kills (4e, 22att, .318) and had three digs and three assists.
So. MB Parker Tomkinson had five kills and five digs in his first extended action of the season.
Jr. S Caleb Blanchette put up 45 assists and had seven digs.
For the Matadors, Jordan Lucas had a career night with 30 kills (3e, 53att) and hit .509 to go with eight digs. Jalen Phillips put up 20 kills (7e, 43att, .302) with three blocks and four digs. Owen Douphner had 55 assists and four digs. Joao Avila picked up 10 digs and had eight kills.

HOW IT HAPPENED

CSUN out-hit the Trojans, .376 to .333, and had more kills (67-58), assists (65-57), blocks (14.5-7.0) and aces (5-2). Both teams finished with 38 digs each.
The Trojans scored four straight kills to take a 5-2 lead in the opening frame and never trailed en route to a 25-19 win. Roberts logged five kills, Klein had four, and Tomkinson picked up three to help USC total 17 kills (4e) on just 23 swings for a .565 hitting percentage. Tomkinson collected the Trojans' only block to end the set, but CSUN had just nine kills (2e) on 19 attacks to hit .368. USC led by as many as seven points at 20-13 but the Matadors closed to within four at 23-19 before Klein's kill out of the back row gave USC set point to set up the Tomkinson finish.
Set two was tied seven times through 14 rallies but the Trojans broke away to lead by seven twice before holding off a late Matador comeback to finish off a 25-20 win for the 2-0 lead. Roberts added four kills to his total while Klein had three and the Trojans hit .375 with 15 kills (3e) on 32 swings. CSUN also had 15 kills but hit .250 with five errors on 40 attempts. Lucas led the Matadors with six kills while Phillips had five.
Much like set two started, set three opened with eight ties before Lucas had five straight kills to put CSUN ahead for good at 12-8. Lucas finished with 11 kills in a 25-19 win as the Matadors hit .412 (19k, 5e, 34att) over the Trojans' six-kill frame (3e, 23att, .130). Klein and Foley had two kills apiece for the Trojan offense.
CSUN evened the match with a 25-17 win in set four. Smith had four kills to lead the USC offense, but Phillips racked up eight kills for the Matadors who hit .650 in the win and finished with 15 kills (2e) on just 20 attacks. After leading, 6-5, the Trojans were tied twice before CSUN went in front by four, 15-11, at the media timeout. The Matador defense put up six blocks to keep the Trojans down at a .167 hitting rate (11k, 7e, 24att).
The teams went through seven ties through 14 rallies in the fifth before Thiago Zamprogno had back-to-back kills to put USC on top, 7-6. Back-to-back USC blocks made the score, 10-7, and put the Trojans in front for good. Lucas had six kills and Phillips had three as CSUN hit .300 (9k, 3e, 20att) and pulled within a point at 14-13 to save a match point. USC hit .444 with nine kills (1e, 18att) and had two kills from Klein, Roberts, and Smith, and three from Zamprogno who scored the final point in a 15-13 win.

UP NEXT

USC hosts UCSB (5-3) at Galen Center on Saturday (Feb. 7) for a 5 p.m. PT start and will be shown live on Big Ten Plus.

MATCH NOTES

USC improved to 54-35 all-time against CSUN.
The Trojans moved to 5-0 at home this spring and will play a total of 16 matches at Galen Center.
USC played its second five-set match of the season (2-0).
The Trojans are 6-0 to start a season for the second straight year.

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.