The empty press room at Galen Center on Saturday night could tell a story of sadness or defeat for USC men’s volleyball, but the opposite story was told on the court itself: No. 4 USC (4-0, 1-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) swept Fort Valley State University (1-4) for its fourth straight win. 

Although the match was far from perfect, the win marked the team’s third consecutive season opening with four straight victories. 

“We’ll always take this result. Great teams just find a way,” Head Coach Jeff Nygaard said in a postgame news conference. “I don’t see the limit to [our potential], and the work is for us to realize and actualize all of that.”

Kills around the rosie

Saturday’s game was the first of the season in which senior outside hitter Dillon Klein wasn’t the Trojans’ sole leader in kills. The former first-team AVCA All-American had an especially dominant performance against Princeton University (0-3) on Jan. 16, notching 27 kills — almost half of the team’s total. 

However, redshirt junior outside hitter Noah Roberts and redshirt sophomore middle blocker Wesley Smith equaled Klein on Saturday with 10 kills, setting and tying season highs, respectively. In the first set, the three each tallied multiple kills, although it was sophomore middle blocker Tyler Robinson who stole the show with a six-kill, 1.000-hitting-percentage performance. USC jumped to a 7-0 run and cruised to a 25-14 first-set win.

“When we turn it on, we’re pretty damn good,” Nygaard said. “We were a very dangerous team, and so the journey’s got to be that that’s just our normal mode of playing, our standard.”

Pocket full of problems

Despite the dominant start, cracks emerged quickly. The Trojans were out-blocked and put up more attack errors in the first set, patterns that would follow them throughout the match. Though, the team bent much more throughout the second and third sets, looking arguably the shakiest they have all season.

Set two saw a combination of improvement from the Wildcats and regression from the Trojans. Five different Trojans committed an attack error, with sophomore outside hitter Sterling Foley leading the pack with a pair. USC finished the match with an overall hitting percentage of 0.306, its lowest mark of the season and the first time it dipped below 0.400.

“I think we got a little complacent in the second and third sets,” Klein said in a postgame news conference.

Despite the errors, the Trojans were able to claw back late in the game, largely thanks to the efforts of Robinson, Smith and sophomore outside hitter Christian Connell. The pair of middle blockers continued to hit well above anyone else on the court, and the Trojans took the lead for the first time on Connell’s first of two consecutive aces at 23-21.

Another reason for USC’s faltering was the rapid improvement of Fort Valley State’s serving ability across the three sets. Although the Trojans had eight service aces to the Wildcats’ four, Fort Valley State’s serving efficiency rose from 0.643 in the first set to 0.864 by the third, higher than USC’s mark of 0.824.

“They’re going to have loose arms that’s just moving around, and they’re taking some big hail maker swings, which is a strength of [theirs],” Nygaard said. “They got loose once or twice, especially in game three, and they caught us, and they just got a couple aces in a row.”

Ashes, ashes, Wildcats fall down

Like its immediate predecessor, the final set had six tie scores, with USC sneaking away at the end; unlike its predecessor, USC held the lead at the very beginning before quickly relinquishing it and embarking on a set-long quest to retrieve control.

Although the Trojans have the fourth-highest attack percentage in the NCAA, their 18 total attack errors — their season high, with eight alone in the third — were quite prevalent. Every hitter mentioned, sans Foley, tacked on at least one, including junior setter Caleb Blanchette.

The Wildcats also put constant block pressure on the Trojans, who are currently top 10 in the NCAA in blocks per set. In the third set alone, Fort Valley State had five and a half total blocks, more than the five that USC totalled across all three sets — its first time this season being out-blocked. 

Yet, errors and all, the Trojans got the job done. That’s not to say that Nygaard and his squad don’t have things to work on as January closes, though.

“There’s no such thing as an easy match here, but we know there’s a bunch of things that we have to dial in on our side,” Nygaard said. “Every single opportunity, every single day, is another way to upgrade and install things that we know we can, compete and maximize our potential.”

USC will end the month with a 7 p.m. match at home against No. 13 Ohio State (4-1) on Friday.