Men’s volleyball falls to UCSB in straight sets

No. 3 USC men’s volleyball (9-3, 8-3 MPSF) dropped their second straight match to No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (9-5, 5-5 MPSF) 19-25, 17-25, 22-25.

While USC lost the first two sets, there wasn’t much of a worry as the Trojans have dropped the first two sets in their last two matches against BYU, who they split the two-game series with.

USC took an early lead in the first set, but then the Gauchos tied it up at 9. From that point on, UCSB built up a lead and ran away with the set. In the first set, senior middle blocker Robert Feathers had a .500 hitting percentage with three kills.

From the start of the second set, UCSB built and maintained their lead over USC, but the Trojans tried to fight back.

Senior opposite Cristian Rivera, red shirt sophomore outside hitter Christopher Orenic and Feathers put together some impressive kills, but they just were not enough to catch the Gauchos. Orenic tallied up an ace to get the momentum going for the Trojans, but UCSB shut the Trojan attack down and took the second set.

The third set started off with back-and-forth scoring and was tied at 2. A huge roof by senior setter Micah Christenson and Feathers kept the Trojans going with a 5-3 lead.

With the set tied up at 9, the Trojans pushed forward to take the lead with a kill on an overpass by Feathers. UCSB took the lead back, but a setter dump from Christenson tied the set up at 14. Orenic followed with a tool to put the Trojans ahead by one.

Christenson put up a big kill to increase the Trojans’ lead to three at 18-15, and the pressure forced UCSB to call a timeout. USC kept pushing forward and fought off UCSB’s attempt to come back. The Trojans were within reach of winning the set at 22-20, but UCSB surpassed them and won the set and match 25-22 with a block.

Head coach Bill Ferguson pointed out that one major weakness for the Trojans in this match — and the series against BYU — has been their mentality. They started off the season with great mental toughness, but recently they’ve been “internalizing too much.”

“I’d like to see veteran guys continue to step up and lead,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson would also like to see his team improve when it comes responding to a set back — something they were so good at during the beginning of the season.

This is the first losing sweep that USC has had all season. Their previous two losses were in five and four sets, Hawai’i and BYU respectively.

“We were not coming out crisp enough,” Ferguson mentioned. “We took too long to play with a rhythm.”

Ferguson has no doubt that his team can recover and regain their winning streak and all-around dominance.

“We need to just let go mentally and move on,” Ferguson said.

The Trojans will have a chance to regroup at home before they head over to the Pauley Pavilion to face No. 11 UCLA at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22.