Trojans take on Pepperdine seeking first win

The Trojans men’s volleyball team (0-6, 0-4 MPSF) will take on No. 8 Pepperdine (4-1, 3-1 MPSF) at the Galen Center on Tuesday night.

The game will be the Trojans’ first as an unranked team since the end of the 2013 season.

“Honestly [ranking] doesn’t really matter,” senior libero and team captain Brooks Varni said. “We’re trying not to look at that kind of stuff yet. We’re more focused on how we’re gaining experience and how we’re learning throughout the whole season. We’re not here to worry about where we are in the rankings.”

On the other side of the net, the Pepperdine Waves have made quite a splash this season by starting MPSF play with a 3-1 record including a 4-set win over No. 4 UC Irvine in their most recent game.

To USC, Pepperdine is yet another ranked opponent in the way of the team’s first victory of the year and one with a variety of weapons.

Two-time All-MPSF second-team senior opposite Matt Tarantino leads the Waves in kills (3.50/set) while hitting .285 for the year. In an errorless performance versus Hawaii, Tarantino landed 13 kills on 16 attempts hitting .812.

USC’s answer to Tarantino is junior outside hitter Lucas Yoder. Two years ago, Yoder earned MPSF Freshman of the Year honors, but after a down year in 2015, he has been hot and cold this season. In Saturday’s match against UCLA, Yoder hit -.200 in just two sets.

Coach Jeff Nygaard remains impressed with his outside hitter’s natural ability and dedication to improving his game.

“[Yoder] is on a path where he’ll go out there and still pass naturally at the highest level,” Nygaard said. “He’s getting better across the board at everything that we do.”

The match will also feature a battle at the net between Pepperdine’s Tommy Carmody and USC junior Andy Benesh.

Carmody, a redshirt senior transfer from the University of the Pacific, has been a quick success with the Waves, leading the team with 32 blocks. As a team, the Waves have recorded 57 blocks to date and held opponents to 30.

Where Pepperdine has added a key player at middle blocker, USC has been missing star Benesh for most of the season. His absence accounts for the Trojans’ mere 37 blocks while opponents have racked up 64 against them.

Benesh returned to the court on Saturday at UCLA with a strong start to his season recording five blocks, six kills and a hitting percentage of .308.

“As you saw against UCLA, [Benesh] blocks balls, which is something we haven’t been doing much of,” Nygaard said.

On Tuesday, Benesh will square off with Carmody to try to mitigate the Waves’ size up front, but Nygaard knows that Benesh will embrace the challenge of Pepperdine’s size, a trait that “makes him who he is.”

Benesh also brings much-needed experience to the court after playing with the Junior Men’s National Team this past summer.

“The good thing about him playing on the international scene is that he played against some middles that were next level across the board: height, jump, physicality, experience and intelligence,” Nygaard said.

“It feels really good to be out there with my teammates again,” Benesh said, when asked about his return. “That first home game was hard for me to watch my teammates go out there and I couldn’t help support them, so it’ll be nice to get back out [at the Galen] tomorrow night.”

With Benesh back in the lineup, the Men of Troy have a big reason to keep their heads held high.

Varni has told the team, “[Our start] has not been ideal, but it’s really about sticking to the process. As frustrating as it is to be 0-6, we’ve got to stay positive.”

While USC has proven they can stay close with the best teams in the nation, to win versus Pepperdine, the team will need to start and finish sets better.

Varni blamed “inexperience” as part of the reason for the team’s inability to close out sets.

“Now with Andy back, it’s a whole new lineup, so I think we’re still getting used to one another and I think we’re going to have that experience as the season goes on about winning games,” Varni said.

The Trojans will gain more in-game experience with the new lineup on Tuesday against Pepperdine.