The roar inside Galen Center had settled into a low, electrical hum. Four sets had already drained the room of easy noise, replacing it with something tighter: a shared awareness that the next 15 points would decide everything — the product of a marathon of 37 ties and 10 lead changes that forced both teams to play beyond their best version and into their most honest one.

No. 4 USC (5-0, 1-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) had looked comfortable early after a 25-19 first-set win, but No. 13 Ohio State (4-3) refused to let it stay that way. And when the marathon match finally narrowed to a fifth set Friday night, the Trojans outlasted the Buckeyes by adjusting, surviving and executing with clarity.

“There were a lot of interruptions. We have a pretty experienced squad, and the mindset is just ‘next ball,’” Head Coach Jeff Nygaard said in a postgame news conference. “The last one’s over, you can’t control it. We’re on to this next moment, this next play.”

The first set suggested the night might be straightforward. Redshirt junior outside hitter Noah Roberts struck from the right side with mechanical efficiency, scoring six kills as USC hit 0.394. The Trojans looked rehearsed, organized and in control. 

By the second and third sets, however, USC was reacting instead of initiating. Ohio State’s serving pressure was constant, disruptive and impossible to ignore. The Buckeyes finished the match with seven aces, and even when they weren’t scoring outright, they forced USC into uncomfortable first contacts and out-of-systems swings.

Ohio State sophomore outside hitter Stanislaw Chacinski punished moments of USC discomfort, finishing with a match-high 22 kills — 8 in the second set alone — and giving Ohio State a reliable outlet whenever the rally got messy. 

The second set turned into a tug-of-war with 10 ties happening before the Buckeyes pulled away, 25-21. The third was distinctively sharper: tied at 24, then again at 25, and when Ohio State’s serve pressure forced a final USC error, the Buckeyes came away with a 27-25 win and 2-1 lead.

The match shifted from an artillery duel to an engineering problem. Ohio State senior outside hitter Shane Wetzel, a powerful left-handed opposite, had been scoring at will and forcing USC defenders to guess, with 15 kills to his name through the match. Early on, the Trojan block was a step slow, arriving late and drifting. But as the match tightened, USC started reading rather than reacting — aligning hands, closing seams, forcing Ohio State into higher-risk swings.

“We had a game plan for [Wetzel],” sophomore outside hitter Sterling Foley said in a postgame news conference. “At first the blocks weren’t really working, but we drifted away from our original option, went into a different one and then the blocks started coming in more.”

Foley tied his career high with six blocks, and USC as a whole turned the net into a weapon, out-blocking Ohio State 14.5 to 5.5. But even with that edge at the net, nothing came easily. USC had to survive the fourth set, which became the night’s defining frame: 16 ties, five lead changes and a constant sense that one slip would end it. 

Senior outside hitter Dillon Klein shouldered the team’s load. Klein finished with 20 kills, hitting 0.319 with five blocks and two aces. He especially delivered in the fourth set, finishing with four kills in the frame and sealing the set with a sharp-angle shot that caromed off a defender and sent Galen Center into release. USC took the set 27-25 and forced a fifth.

Junior setter Caleb Blanchette posted 32 assists and a career-high 14 digs, keeping the Trojans steady in a match that repeatedly tried to break USC’s rhythm.

The final set saw USC sprint to a 4-1 lead and never let Ohio State draw even. The Trojans played with the clearest version of themselves — a faster tempo, cleaner first contacts and a solid defense amounted to a 0.583 hitting percentage, while the Buckeyes hit just 0.167. 

Foley said part of USC finally playing the way it wanted to came down to rhythm — the kind of subtle adjustment that changes everything at the pin.

“I’ve been trying to speed up the tempo,” Foley said. “We were running pretty fast tempo out to the pin and I could beat the block a little bit.”

In the end, the Trojans hit 0.333 to Ohio State’s 0.219, winning not because they were flawless but because they were sturdier in the match’s most fragile moments. Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Wesley Smith added 10 kills on a 0.471 clip, and Roberts finished with 10 kills, providing steady right-side production even when the match became uncomfortable.

This match, the closest of USC’s season so far, forced the Trojans to problem-solve under stress, to absorb runs without unraveling, to bend but not break. Roberts pointed to the squad’s foundation to explain why they were able to come away with a win in the end.

“Everybody’s friends on and off the court and that definitely helps our connection,” Roberts said. “No matter who’s out there on the court, no matter which setter is throwing the ball around the court, it’s just my responsibility to put it away if I get the chance to do it.”

USC now turns its attention to a pivotal week at Galen Center, hosting No. 17 CSU Northridge (7-1) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. before a Saturday showdown with No. 15 UC Santa Barbara (5-3) at 5 p.m.