No. 6 USC Men's Volleyball Falls in Straight Sets at No. 4 Pepperdine

Saturday, April 18

Malibu, Calif.

6:00 p.m. PT

USC

17-6,9-5MPSFMVB

Pepperdine

22-5,13-1MPSFMVB

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Southern California	20	22	18	0
Pepperdine	25	25	25	3

USC men's volleyball huddles on the court during a match at Firestone Fieldhouse against Pepperdine

Photo by: Brianna Sheu

No. 6 USC Men's Volleyball Falls in Straight Sets at No. 4 Pepperdine

April 18, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

The Trojans concluded the regular season in third place in the final MPSF standings

LOS ANGELES – The sixth-ranked USC men's volleyball team (17-6, 9-5 MPSF) cemented itself into third place in the final MPSF standings after a 3-0 loss (25-20, 25-22, 25-18) at No. 4 Pepperdine (22-5, 13-1) at Firestone Fieldhouse on Saturday, April 18.

KEY PLAYERS

Sr. OH Dillon Klein scored nine kills (5e, 18att, .222) and had five digs and a block.
So. OH Christian Connell had nine kills (3e, 15att) and hit .400 to go with two digs and a block.
Fr. OPP Cooper Keane tallied seven kills (4e, 15att, .200) to go with two digs.
For the Waves, Cole Hartke had 13 kills (4e, 28att) and hit .321 with four digs and three blocks. Ryan Barnett totaled 12 kills and had just one error (18att) to hit .611 with two blocks. Noe Matthey put up five kills. Andrej Polomac dished out 37 assists and had three service aces.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Pepperdine hit .457 (40k, 8e, 70att) over USC's .270 (36k, 16e, 74att) and doubled the Trojans in blocks (6-3). Both teams had 17 digs apiece, but the Waves had five aces.
The Waves secured the first set with a 25-20 win on .333 hitting. Hartke had four kills in the opening frame on 10 swings. On the other side of the net, Connell delivered four kills on just five attempts, but USC hit .136 as a team with nine kills (6e, 22att). The Waves scored twice from the service line and had a 7-6 edge in digs to go on top, 1-0.
The Trojans led set two by as many as four at 16-12, but the Waves kept pushing and pulled even at 21-all on a kill by Hartke for the 11th tie of the set. Pepperdine kept the pressure on and went on to win, 25-22, for a 2-0 lead in the match. USC racked up 18 kills in the second but had three of its most costly hitting errors down the stretch to finish with .438 hitting (4e, 32att). The Waves hit .560 with 16 kills (2e) on 25 swings and got six kills from Hartke and seven from Barnett.
Pepperdine secured the sweep with a 25-18 win in the third. The Waves went up, 5-1, and were never tied and never trailed on the way to the victory. The Trojans hit .150 against three Pepperdine blocks while the Waves put up a .476 hitting rate with 12 kills (2e) on 21 swings. Hartke, Barnett, and Jose Gomez each had three kills in the third for the Waves.

UP NEXT

The Trojans conclude the regular season in third place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings and await the disposition of the league's seeding committee for the conference tournament set to be played at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah, next week (April 23-25). Quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be shown on Big Ten Plus with the championship match set for a Big Ten Network broadcast.

MATCH NOTES

USC fell to 45-81 all-time against the Waves and has lost four straight against Pepperdine.
The Trojans dropped to 4-2 in road matches this spring.
USC moves to 9-6 in matches against ranked opponents and to 2-6 against teams ranked in the top 10.

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.