Trojans seek to return to NCAA Tourney

With arguably one of the all-time Trojan greats leading the team and plenty of depth around the rest of the court, the men’s volleyball team comes into the 2015 campaign confident and eager to qualify for the NCAA national championship tournament for the first time in three seasons.

The Trojans implemented the equivalent of a no-huddle offense quarterbacked by the best setter in the country in senior Micah Christenson. Christenson, the Honolulu native who sets for the U.S. National team when he is not wearing cardinal and gold, will anchor a new scheme.

Head coach Bill Ferguson spoke very highly of Christenson’s abilities on the court and leadership off it.

“He’s got the ability to be one of the best that’s ever played here if he continues to work with the same efficiency and tenacity he’s had since he’s been here,” Ferguson said. “He’s a very hard worker, he’s fantastic in the film room and he’s great in the weight room, pretty much all aspects.”

The new offense is based on attacking opponents with aggressive serves and quick sets to hitters. Ferguson said that instead of calling for high sets that give the offense time to get in position, the Trojans will instead try to catch opposing defenses off-guard by setting lower and attacking faster.

“The tempo of our offense is faster,” Ferguson said. “Our middles are getting up and hitting the quick sets faster, our Bic [back row quick] is a little bit faster and we’re teeing off from the service line.”

The Trojans return 12 players for the 2015 season who appeared in a match last year. The team will have to replace five graduating players from last year’s roster, including three who frequently started.

Junior libero Brooks Varni will take over for Henry Cassiday, who started at the position for four years, and senior Cristian Rivera will become the primary opposite hitter after the graduation of Tanner Jansen, who also started all four years.

The Trojans also lost the services of Maddison McKibbin, who started matches at outside hitter and opposite, as well as outside hitter Joey Booth and setter Paul Yoder, who both appeared in matches.

The 2014 Trojans, who finished 16-11 overall as well as 14-10 in conference, finished in eighth place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, arguably the toughest conference in all of men’s volleyball, last year, qualifying as the last team in the 14-team conference to make the MPSF tournament. However, the Trojans were defeated in the first round of the tournament, which determined an automatic qualifier for the national championship tournament, by first-seeded BYU and did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

While the Trojans did not win the national championship, they were the only opponents to beat the team that did. Loyola-Chicago claimed the national title with a record of 29-1 on the season, and that lone loss came to USC when the Trojans went to visit Chicago before the start of conference play.

In program history, the Trojans have won four national titles. Ferguson is coming into his ninth year at the helm of the program and he’s made the NCAA tournament three times but he is still looking for his first national championship.

The last time the Trojans appeared in the tournament was 2012, when they advanced to the championship game but fell to UC Irvine.

Ferguson says this year’s team resembles that 2012 team a lot, bringing very much a blue-collar and hard working approach to the game. He believes that this could finally be the year when the Trojans win it all.

It’s the most ‘together’ team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” he said. “We’re going to work our tails off to get [to the NCAA tournament].”

The No. 7 Trojans won their season opener on the road against Grand Canyon in five sets on Jan. 7 and play their home opener tonight against No. 2 Pepperdine in the Galen Center at 8:00 p.m. USC also hosts No. 10 Stanford on Monday at 5:00 p.m.