Men’s volleyball puts on the glass slippers
An upset conference tournament win over BYU has USC dreaming of a Cinderella run.
By ETHAN INMAN
No. 6 seed USC men’s volleyball entered its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference tournament first-round matchup against the No. 3 seed BYU Cougars on Wednesday with a clear objective: Slay the familiar beast or have its season abruptly ended on its home court.
The Trojans (13-14, 3-9 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) had just secured a victory against the Cougars (16-9, 7-6) two weeks prior, on April 6, which was their best win of the season up until that point. But they knew BYU would come into the postseason match, newly motivated to get revenge.
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“They were definitely coming back to beat us with a little more fire than that night,” said senior middle blocker Kyle Paulson in an interview with the Daily Trojan.
But yet again, it was the Trojans who were able to impose their will early. Behind strong performances from Paulson and redshirt junior opposite hitter Jack Deuchar, the Trojans seemed to be closing on a 1-0 lead in the match with a 24-18 lead in the first set, one point away from a decisive victory.
However, BYU put together an unlikely perfect storm to tie the set at 24-24. USC fought to salvage the set but ended up losing to the fired-up Cougars 32-30 to fall behind 1-0.
Losing an almost sure 1-0 lead to a great team like BYU could have been demoralizing for many teams, but USC Head Coach Jeff Nygaard said he was proud of how his team responded.
“It didn’t stop us at all, we just kept grinding,” Nygaard said. “Seeing our team be that resilient and just stay in it and figure out a way was great.”
Staying in the match was not easy. After a back-and-forth affair of a second set, the Trojans and Cougars found themselves in familiar territory: unable to decide the outcome of the set when 25 points rolled around. Dating back to the April 6 matchup, this was the sixth-straight set between the two teams that needed extra points to decide the outcome.
In general, Nygaard felt the match was very similar to the highly contested, instant-classic senior night victory.
“It felt like we just continued playing; I know there was a two-week lag, but it didn’t feel that much different,” Nygaard said.
The Trojans were able to pull the second set out and knot the match up at 1-1.
They carried the momentum into yet another hard-fought third set, which appeared to be headed to even more overtime when the teams found themselves knotted at 22. But the Trojans proved to have more composure than the Cougars, who made a couple of key errors at the end of the set, giving the Trojans a 25-23 victory and a 2-1 lead.
Anyone who had watched these two teams play knew the drama would hardly end there. BYU’s response was ferocious: Led by junior outside hitter Luke Benson, the Cougars put together the most dominant set of the night, a 25-18 victory that put them firmly back in the match.
Nygaard acknowledged Benson was difficult for the Trojans to stop all night long.
“Luke Benson went nuts tonight,” Nygaard said. “He was a force.”
But Nygaard also acknowledged a big factor in the fourth-set misstep was serving inconsistency.
“Game four got away from us because we coughed up like five or six service errors,” Nygaard said.
Indeed, the Trojans made six service errors in the set, most of which occurred during the first few points.
But, just like after the first-set loss, the Trojans rebounded, strong as ever. Led by their senior captains Paulson and Deuchar, as they had been all night long, USC cruised to a 15-12 victory in the final set.
Paulson played the hero, taking freshman setter Caleb Blanchette’s quick set and pounding home the Trojans’ game-winning point. It was an exciting moment for the All-MPSF honorable mention as he screamed at the sky in jubilation.
“To be honest, I was not expecting that last ball to be set to me — I thought it was gonna go to Deuchar,” Paulson said, laughing. “But yeah, it’s always great whenever a middle [blocker] can get a kill.”
Paulson was a scoring threat for the Trojans all night, pacing the Trojans with a .667 hitting clip and racking up 10 kills.
But the star of the night was Deuchar. He had sat much of the Trojans’ senior night win over the Cougars, only playing in the first and second sets.
This was a much different night, the kind of night that defines careers. He put together a career-best 34.5-point night on 30 kills — also a career-high — and four service aces.
“Seeing our senior captain, Jack, have the best night of his career so far was great,” Nygaard said.
But Deuchar felt his teammates deserved the real credit for his big night.
“Credit to the setters — [Blanchette] and [junior setter Josh Friedman] — and credit to our defense, we made so many digs that I think I got twice as many swings as I normally would,” Deuchar said. “Credit to them. I mean, the ball has to be dug for me to go hit it.”
With Wednesday night’s victory, the Trojans advance to the MPSF semifinals against rival UCLA (22-4, 11-1). One of the keys to winning that match will be defense, along with serving.
“It’s a serve-and-pass battle,” Nygaard said. “If we can control [UCLA’s] serves and take care of their serves … I think we have what it takes to win.”
