USC seeks revenge against MPSF rivals

After splitting two matches last week, the Trojans return to action today for the first time since spring break against conference rival UCSB. The rematch between the No. 9 Trojans (12-7, 10-6 MPSF) and the No. 7 Gauchos (13-7, 9-7 MPSF) comes a little over a month since UCSB beat the Trojans in Santa Barbara.

In the Trojans’ return to conference play last week after two nonconference games the week before, the Trojans fell in four sets (25-21, 22-25, 25-23, 27-25) to No. 14 Cal State Northridge (8-13, 5-10 MPSF) on Wednesday, March 18. Two days later, the Trojans were able to get back to their winning ways and pull off a five-set (21-25, 25-19, 14-25, 25-19, 15-10) win over No. 10 Long Beach State (12-10, 8-9 MPSF).

Against Cal State Northridge, the Trojans struggled hitting, recording only a .223 hitting percentage on the night to Cal State Northridge’s .236. But it was a breakout match for freshman outside hitter Larry Tuileta. Tuileta, a Hawaii native who also plays for the football team as a backup quarterback, made only his third start of the season and hit .469 over the match. He led the team with 17 kills, 10 digs and three service aces, all three of which were career highs.

The Trojans hit only marginally better overall against Long Beach State at a percentage of .238, but they were able to come out with a victory nonetheless by holding Long Beach State to only .197. The Trojans recorded 57 digs on the night. Junior libero Brooks Varni led the way with 14, senior setter Micah Christenson added 12 and Tuileta contributed 11.

Both matches were on the road. Earlier in the season, when the Trojans hosted Cal State Northridge and Long Beach State, they beat both in straight sets.

“I was really proud of the way the guys hung in there,” head coach Bill Ferguson said about Long Beach State in his weekly recap with the athletic department. “We’re getting off to slow starts and we haven’t solved that problem yet. I think if we had gotten our act together early in the first set, we could have gotten out of there in three or four. That wasn’t the case, but the guys stayed with it and fought and battled.”

The Trojans will look to avenge a loss earlier this season at UC Santa Barbara with the chance to now play the Gauchos at home. Weston Nielson and Kevin Donahue previously led the Gauchos to the three-set win (25-19, 25-17, 25-22) with 12 kills apiece.

The Trojans had arguably their poorest hitting performance all season that night, hitting for only .070.

On Saturday, the Trojans take on crosstown rival No. 12 UCLA (10-8, 6-8 MPSF). When these two met about a month back at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins took the match 3-1 (25-15, 25-23, 22-25, 25-22).

The last time the rivals met on the court, USC was without Christenson — an All-American and USA National Team member — and junior opposite hitter Josh Kirchner; Christenson had an acute sinus infection and Kirchner had a sprained ankle.

Notably, neither team hit particularly well — USC hit .118 and UCLA hit .200.

To best the Bruins, the Trojans will focus on shutting down freshman outside hitter Jake Arnitz and freshman opposite hitter Christian Hessenauer. Last match, Arnitz had 16 kills and Hessenauer had 12 kills.

USC will also look to contine the progression it has made over the last two weeks. Ferguson has noticed that the team has improved both its blocking and digging, two aspects that were in a bit of a lull following the Trojans’ dominant start to the season.

The Trojans have also mixed up their serving a bit. For a couple of matches, their serves were not as effective as they once were, but now Ferguson sees great potential in the newly adjusted serving tactics.

“We can custom-make our serving depending on who our opponent is and how we need to play the match,” Ferguson said.

If the Trojans can capitalize on the way that they’ve been playing recently, they should be able to pick up two home wins, which will keep them in contention for a competitive seed heading into the MPSF tournament at the end of the season.

The Trojans play UCSB tonight at 8 p.m. and UCLA on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Galen Center.