Men’s volleyball defeats BYU in five sets
In an epic five-set thriller with 2,000 fans on hand at the Galen Center, the No. 8 men’s volleyball team advanced to the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament with a victory over No. 6 BYU Saturday.
The win served as sweet revenge for the Trojans, who were eliminated by BYU in Provo last season during the MPSF tournament.
“I think it’s the biggest one,” sophomore middle blocker Andy Benesh said when asked where the win ranks in his career at USC. “We lost last year at BYU in Provo in three, and it’s playoff time. To win in five, it’s huge.”
The Trojans went back and forth each of the five sets. The Trojans won the first set 25-17, BYU evened it up with a 25-20 win in the second set, USC took the third set 25-22 and BYU stayed alive with a 25-23 win in the fourth set.
But the Trojans got the final, decisive answer in the seesaw battle. In the fifth set, the Trojans built up a 14-11 lead and had three match points to close out the victory. BYU climbed back to 14-13, and it looked like the fifth set might need to go past the 15-point mark for a team to win by two.
But junior outside hitter Alex Slaught killed the final point, his 21st kill of the match, closing out a 25-17, 20-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13 win.
Slaught’s 21 kills led the match for the Trojans. Freshman outside hitter Larry Tuileta had 18 and senior opposite Cristian Rivera added 14. Middle blockers Benesh and senior Robert Feathers contributed seven and six respectively. Senior setter Micah Christenson, who assisted on 59 kills on the night, also killed five of his own points.
Benesh said the key for the Trojans this time around was on serving and passing. Though BYU had one more ace and six fewer service errors, he said they were still able to put on a lot of pressure from the service line and handle BYU’s pressure.
“I thought on serving and passing, we won that battle,” he said. “We really controlled the match.”
Benesh added that while the team struggled to some degree hitting, different guys were still able to push through all match. The Trojans hit for only .231, below their season average of .269, but they were able to hold the Cougars to only .196.
“People [were] persevering through some hard times in that match,” he said. “I know Alex Slaught was getting really mad at himself but he came up huge, especially in that fifth set.”
The Trojans outblocked the Cougars, recording 13.5 team blocks to only 11 from BYU. Defensively, junior libero Brooks Varni led the way with 16 digs, with Tuileta recording 15 and Christenson adding 13.
Earlier in the season, the Trojans had a similarly dramatic win over BYU, though on a much smaller stage. When BYU came to the Galen Center on Feb. 12 for a two-game trip, USC took the first match in five sets. The Trojans dropped both of the first two sets, but staged a comeback and won the next three, which included a nail-biter of a fifth set (20-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-23, 16-14).
That win propelled USC back into sole possession of first place in the MPSF standings, but the roughest stretch of the season for the Trojans immediately followed. USC dropped the second match against BYU in four sets (25-20, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19), then lost their next three conference matches, as well as four of their next five.
But now, the Trojans have won eight of their last nine matches, with seven of those wins coming against conference opponents.
The match was also the 10th time the Trojans have gone the distance in a match. USC is now 8-2 in those five-set matches.
“Going into [the fifth set], I knew this is our time,” coach Bill Ferguson said. “The first thing I told them was nobody’s been in more five-set matches this year than us and nobody’s won more five-set matches than us.”
The Trojans will take on No. 2 UC Irvine, the top seed in the MPSF tournament, in the semifinals this Thursday. Irvine took down the Trojans in five sets after dropping the first two sets (20-25, 18-25, 25-19, 25-17, 15-13) at the Galen Center the last time these two teams played on March 3. However, when USC visited Irvine, which will play host to the semifinal, on Jan. 23, the Trojans were victorious in five sets (28-30, 25-17, 21-25, 25-23,15-13).
“Irvine’s an unbelievable team, we’re going to have our hands full,” Ferguson said. “But we are going to be in Irvine, and that’s in the heart of Trojan nation, so it’s a place that we’re comfortable playing.”
The Trojans and the Anteaters are set to start at 7:30 p.m. on April 30. The winner will earn the chance to play for the MPSF’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on May 2.