Mid-January marks a special time: sweater weather, the arrival of the spring semester and the beginning of the USC men’s volleyball season. Last year, the Trojans rode to a 21-7 record, good for the second 20-win season of Head Coach Jeff Nygaard’s tenure and their best finish since 2022. With Nygaard recently receiving a contract extension through 2028, the team is all-in on replicating that success. 

Over Nygaard’s 11-year history coaching the Trojans, USC has placed anywhere from second to sixth fiddle in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings, but never first. Despite the progress, familiar shortcomings continued to surface.

In both 2022 and 2025, four of USC’s six regular-season losses came from Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams, saddling the team in the MPSF standings with an 8-4 conference record behind first-place UCLA. Both seasons ended in the MPSF Tournament at the hands of Pepperdine with a four-set death blow shutting down some of their best chances to make the NCAA Tournament. 

“It felt good having a good year. … We’re definitely using that fire in the gym this year to come back and hopefully have a better year,” said senior outside hitter Dillon Klein at MPSF Men’s Volleyball Media Day on Dec. 15.

Trojans ready for MPSF battles

In the preseason, the No. 5 Trojans (1-0) hosted two Fall Invitationals at home, winning three out of four matches and losing a hard-fought battle to No. 7 UC Irvine. On Saturday, they hosted St. Thomas Aquinas College (1-2), sweeping the Spartans in their first-ever meeting. This marked Nygaard’s eighth season-opening win as a Trojan. 

Looking ahead, February presents an early litmus test. USC will play two matches against UC Irvine, who ended the Trojans’ 9-0 streak to start the 2025 season — their best to start a season since 1991. However, that’s not nearly the month’s most important event for the Trojans. 

On Feb. 19 and 20, USC will join No. 3 University of Hawai’i (3-1), No. 1 UCLA (2-0, 1-0 MPSF) and No. 2 Long Beach State University (2-0), in a four-team competition at the Honda Center in Anaheim. 

After the Honda Center matches, the Trojans will start league play with back-to-back matches against UCLA. The Trojans split the duology last year, including a five-set loss that proved costly as they finished just two games behind UCLA for the best record in the MPSF.

The series will also be a revenge match for UCLA transfer junior middle blocker Thiago Zamprogno, who put up a career-high nine kills against the Spartans last Saturday in his Trojan debut.

April, however, will determine USC’s postseason fate. The Trojans begin the month with consecutive matches against No. 11 Stanford, which swept the Trojans across two meetings in 2025 and has not lost to USC since 2023. 

Arguably USC’s most important back-to-back ends the season: The Trojans play No. 3 Pepperdine twice for their final regular-season matches. In three different years of Nygaard’s tenure — including twice in the finals — Pepperdine has defeated the Trojans in the MPSF Tournament, eliminating USC’s hopes at grabbing an NCAA Tournament bid. 

“[UCLA, Pepperdine, and Stanford] are all great teams, and we compete against all of them very hard,” Klein said. “We’re excited to play everyone.”

Returning faces ready to make an impact

USC’s success last year — and in this season’s opener — came from a heap of talented players. Klein and sophomore middle blocker Parker Tomkinson were both named AVCA All-Americans in 2025, with Klein being named to the first team and Tomkinson getting a second-team nod. 

Klein was the first Trojan to earn first-team All-American honors since 2015, and he had a big hand in a potent Trojan offense: He ranked in the top three in both kills per set and points per set among MPSF players, helping USC to a 0.344 hitting percentage — good for fourth in the entire NCAA and the team’s highest since 2022.

At 7 feet tall, Tomkinson is the tallest men’s volleyball player to ever wear the cardinal and gold. In his freshman season, it showed: He made an immediate impact on the defensive side, leading the MPSF in blocks per set. 

However, Tomkinson wasn’t present in the season opener against St. Thomas Aquinas and may miss time. Klein said Tomkinson’s currently dealing with back issues.

Three returning Trojans also received All-American honorable mentions: junior setter Caleb Blanchette, sophomore libero Johnny Dykstra and sophomore outside hitter Sterling Foley. Blanchette and Dykstra led the MPSF in assists per set and digs per set, respectively, while Foley had the second-most kills on the team last year. All three received MPSF Defensive Player of the Week honors at some point during the season. 

“Caleb’s been great. Foley’s been great. Johnny’s been fantastic,” Klein said. “From top to bottom, it’s been a great year of guys really growing into themselves and trying to lead this team.”

USC looks to carry its momentum from last season into this one, and if its 0.417 hitting percentage — exemplified by Klein hitting 0.750 — against St. Thomas Aquinas means anything, blessings may soon befall Galen Center. But MPSF play is a different beast. 

Luckily for USC, the cutting of past MPSF member Grand Canyon University’s men’s volleyball program — which made two of the last three NCAA Tournaments — and the expansion of the NCAA Tournament from nine teams to 12 widens the Trojans’ margin for error.

Whether that translates to USC’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018 remains to be seen. 

For now, USC will travel to Costa Mesa to face Vanguard University (1-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday.