After kicking off its season with a 3-0 sweep against St. Thomas Aquinas College on Jan. 10, USC men’s volleyball went into this past weekend looking to continue its winning ways.

The only things standing in the Trojans’ way were their first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match of the season against Vanguard University on Thursday, followed by a bout against their first ranked foe of the season, No. 18 Princeton University, on Friday.

While USC (3-0, 1-0 MPSF) handled the Lions (2-2, 0-1 MPSF) with ease for its second straight 3-0 win, the Tigers (0-3) proved to be a far more formidable threat, pushing Head Coach Jeff Nygaard’s squad to its limits in a four-set Trojan victory. Nevertheless, the Trojans find themselves undefeated through three matches, with scrapes and bruises to show for it.

“I love being challenged. I love the competitiveness,” Nygaard said in a postgame news conference Friday. “On our side, we found a way to get it done.”

Vanguard falls behind late

Whether it was from nerves for their first conference match or shedding some tough-to-knock-off rust from the offseason, the Trojans struggled early with Vanguard in its first conference match of the season. Despite winning the following two rounds with ease, the first set featured a scrappy exchange that sported four ties before either team reached 10 points. 

Nevertheless, by game’s end, USC dominated in almost every way — more kills, more assists, more digs — but dwindled where it counted, totaling fewer errors with a 0.468 hitting percentage, compared to the Lions’ abysmal season low of 0.130 on 77 total attacks. 

The Lions started off slap-happy, racking up half of their 18 total attack errors in the first set alone to go along with a service ace. As a result, USC seemed nervous to kick off each rally, tallying five service errors in the first set; the Trojans managed to pull through despite some more finicky maneuvers that resulted in three attack errors, bringing down their otherwise sterling hitting percentage. 

Senior outside hitter Dillon Klein and junior setter Caleb Blanchette teamed up to keep the Trojans organized against Vanguard’s guerilla warfare: Blanchette offered up 26 assists while Klein brought home 11 kills — numbers the pair would both more than double the following day.

After losing the close first set, Vanguard’s confidence waned steadily throughout the rest of the night, losing by 8 points in the second round and 11 points in the third to complete a clean USC sweep.

Tigers almost earn their stripes

Despite Vanguard being USC’s first conference match of the season, Princeton presented the Trojans with their first real challenge so far.

“It was nice to play against a team that would really challenge us,” Blanchette said in a postgame news conference Friday. “This is probably the first game that we’ve really had to buckle down and come within ourselves and pull it out.”

Princeton brought out the best while highlighting the worst of what USC had to offer, forcing extended rallies and capitalizing on moments of Trojan sloppiness before they gained the confidence to rely on their offensive strengths: dominating the net and serving line. 

While clearing the first set at 25-17, Klein and junior middle blocker Wesley Smith combined for a powerful 7-of-12 Trojan kills, with Smith pulling his hits back to keep the swings from escaping Tiger lines. Despite committing two service errors, Smith fired at a 0.588 rate for a 10-on-17 performance, the offensive runner-up of the night to Klein.

Klein specifically played the net like a quarterback, making quick and essential decisions on the court between a gentle tip or nuclear kill to the back row as he found — or made — a window in air-tight blocks. This decisiveness earned him 27 kills, two off of his all-time personal record, on 40 total attacks for a whopping 0.650 accuracy, a rate Nygaard called “astronomical.”

Princeton evened the match in the second set, winning 25-20 by exploiting gaps in the Trojans’ defensive coverage. While USC’s flow on the court was more adaptive and loose, responding to what was needed moment by moment, Princeton played with an impressively standardized strategy and adhered to more of a hierarchy that determined who would approach the ball first.

As a result, Princeton’s offense was able to capitalize on holes in Trojan strategy. Both in the middle of the court or next to the net, USC’s defense, coordinated by Blanchette, prepared for hits on the lines from both offensive attacks and serves from the Tigers, including senior outside hitter Andrew Werner.

“They came in with high energy and just turned it loose; it worked for them really successfully. … They just kept going to the same thing that was working over and over again,” Nygaard said in a postgame news conference Friday. “And why would they have to change? It’s on us to make those plays.”

The Trojans’ adaptive style shone in the final two sets. Set three kicked off right with Klein, Blanchette and junior middle blocker Thiago Zamprogno dominating net defense on the Trojan side, offering up a set of instrumental blocks time and time again that proved essential in a persistent back-and-forth round that tied 11 times. 

Their joint cognizance paved the way for junior outside hitter Kahale Clini and sophomore outside hitter Christian Connell to nail down the back row for focused and varied reception, closely clinching the third match, 26-24.

Whether it was an emergency set or bump — or, in sophomore libero Johnny Dykstra’s case, hopping two rows of chairs in the pursuit of a shank — the Trojans made the necessary adaptations to fight off the Tigers in a game where every point mattered, ultimately taking home the fourth set 25-18 to secure their third straight victory.

“It was a really gritty win. It was a really nice performance,” Nygaard said. “I loved that they pushed us and we had to respond.”

USC will use its gritty style to attempt to extend its win streak in another game at Galen Center against Fort Valley State University (1-0) at 5 p.m. on Saturday.