Mountain climb ahead for men’s volleyball

The No. 12 men’s volleyball team is ready to make their mark on the playoffs when they take on Stanford Wednesday night in round one of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament. 

The Trojans have the right mojo heading into the tournament, as they have been playing some of their best volleyball lately. They won back-to-back MPSF matchups for the first time all season this past week as they defeated Concordia University Irvine twice. The second game, a 3-0 sweep at the Galen Center, may have been the Trojans’ most complete performance of the season as they hit at an excellent .381 clip and held a dangerous CUI team to only .212 hitting. 

In addition, star freshman outside hitter Dillon Klein was named MPSF Offensive Player of the Week after he averaged 4.25 kills per set and hit .431 for the week. 

One of the most exciting storylines for Trojan fans to follow will be Klein’s first career playoff appearance. The talented freshman has elevated his level of play all season long and is coming off his best week all season. With the biggest game of his career on the horizon, expect him to dig deep and try to take his game up even another notch. 

Klein said the best preparation will be to keep doing what has gotten him to this point: focus solely on hard work. 

“It all starts at practice on Monday,” Klein said. “We’re going to come in to practice ready to go, focused, get up to Stanford on Tuesday and do our thing.” 

Another storyline that will loom large pertains to the starting lineup. Before this week, Head Coach Jeff Nygaard tweaked the typical starting lineup, inserting redshirt sophomore outside hitter Jackson Reed into the starting lineup and moving graduate outside hitter Kevin Kobrine from outside to opposite hitter. The tweak made a huge difference for the Trojans offensively, as Klein and Kobrine’s presence on the same front line created an offensive attack that CUI had no answer for and played a massive part in the two victories.

Reed’s all-around ability was also a huge advantage for the Trojans. 

“[Reed] just gives us that first ball touch, that nice easy arc,” Nygaard said. “Good ball control, makes good digs, real consistent server, [he] just adds value to the nuances of the game.” 

The challenge will be if the new group can be comfortable with one another despite playing only two games together with this rotation thus far. 

The tournament’s location, Stanford’s Maples Pavilion, will also make the first-round matchup a unique challenge for the Trojans. While most of the teams in the MPSF tournament will be playing in unfamiliar territory, USC’s opponent, the Stanford Cardinal, has the advantage of being the tournament’s hosts. The game will likely have the feel of a true road matchup for the Trojans: they will be playing a team that has the comfortability afforded by playing on their home court and the environment of a gym full of home fans in their corner. 

To overcome that fact and pull off a first-round upset, the Trojans must build on their previous matchup against Stanford. The Trojans beat the Cardinal 3-2 back on Feb. 26 at the Galen Center, the Trojans’ only win against a higher-ranked opponent all season. 

If the Trojans advance, they will play again on Thursday night, and if they win a second time, they will play in the MPSF championship game on Saturday. They’ve made it clear that the championship game is their goal. 

“We’re not done, we’re not done at all,” Nygaard said. “We have a lot of volleyball left in us and we believe we can go into this tournament and do some good things.” 

To do well, they’ll have to start well, and Trojan fans won’t want to miss that origin story. 

The first game of the MPSF tournament against Stanford is Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Maples Pavilion and on FloSports’s FloVolleyball channel.