After starting the season undefeated through its first seven matches, No. 5 USC men’s volleyball split a home-and-home series with No. 4 UC Irvine, handing both teams their first losses of the year. The Trojans’ effort against the Anteaters on Wednesday led to a reverse sweep and their first victory against UCI since 2024, but they experienced some 2025 déjà vu on Friday, losing their first match of the season to the Anteaters for the second year in a row.

Wednesday’s match was a masterclass in resilience. Despite taking close losses in each of the first two sets, USC (8-1, 1-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) refused to roll over against its highest-ranked opponent so far. The Trojans’ tight defense held UCI (12-1) to a 0.071 attack rate in the third set — contrasting greatly with their own offense, which caught fire through the remainder of the night.

While Friday’s match did not end as USC hoped, the Trojans continued to show their unwillingness to go down without a fight. They hit 0.417 to the Anteaters’ 0.344 and played every point to its very end. A win in set three seemed to indicate that Wednesday night’s comeback would be repeated, but the Trojans fell just short in the end.  

‘Our word’s resilient’

Even during the Trojans’ two lost sets, the Anteaters had no time to rest, playing catch-up in the first set and holding off a Trojan offense that persistently tried to tighten up the score in the second set. 

USC racked up a higher number of attacks, kills, assists, digs and blocks than UCI over the course of the Wednesday match, powered by strong blocking from senior outside hitter Dillon Klein and sophomore middle blocker Parker Tomkinson in the second set as well as consistently-high hitting efficiency from the team throughout the match. In the sets where the Trojans were down, they did not show signs of relenting; if anything, they turned up the heat. 

“Our word’s resilient,” said Head Coach Jeff Nygaard in a postgame news conference Friday. “We know we’re resilient. We know we’re talented. We know we’re deep. We’ve got a lot of tools to use. We know we can fight this.”

Nygaard singled out Klein as the player synonymous with “resilience” when he spoke about leadership on his team. Klein notched his fourth career double-double Wednesday night with 23 kills and 10 digs. Sophomore outside hitter Sterling Foley and redshirt junior opposite hitter Noah Roberts also saw big offensive nights, garnering 14 kills apiece.

Bananas and a split

The fight continued at Galen Center on Friday, where Foley was a standout physical competitor. Foley’s run of serves in the first set included two aces and breathed life into a Trojan offense that had fallen behind the Anteaters. He posted 10 kills and 11 digs, showcasing his versatility as a competitor in all aspects of the game.

“I think he is our best competitor, meaning, I think he’s good at every single facet of the game,” Nygaard said of Foley. “If I were to say who is our best all-around volleyball player, I think it’s Sterling Foley.”

The second set was also noticeably louder from the fans’ side, due to USC’s pickup of momentum as well as the sudden entrance of several banana-costume-clad attendees streaming from the top down to the front row seats. The bananas seemingly reappeared from the Waste Management Phoenix Open held last weekend and got the crowd roaring.

The Trojan offense put up such strong numbers in large part because of the team’s depth. Freshman outside hitter Cooper Keane came in off the bench to start the third set and, from the moment he stepped onto the court, took on a dominant role. His career-high 12 kills gave USC the momentum it needed to punch in a win for the third set.

“He was the answer for what we needed at that position for our team,” Nygaard said of Keane. “Cooper dialed it in, and it was a really nice performance from a freshman.”

Alongside Keane’s two big blocks of the night was sophomore middle blocker Tyler Robinson who led the team with four blocks as well as a career-high 10 kills on 12 swings. 

Junior setter Caleb Blanchette’s 53 assists set the Trojan offense up to hit 0.417, making Friday one of their best hitting nights of the season. 

After starting the season with sophomore libero Johnny Dykstra playing all around, Nygaard’s decision to use junior libero Brad Pan on defense and Dykstra in serve receive in recent games has given both athletes the chance to showcase their defensive strength — which Pan did on Friday, matching his career-high in digs with seven.

“They both come in every single day and give it their all,” Klein said in a postgame news conference Friday. “The fact that we have both on our team, I’m really happy about. We’re utilizing every piece and trying to go out there and get a win.”

Despite a strong performance from USC, the Anteaters’ strong serving — which included seven aces — kept calm momentum on their side for large periods of time, even as the bananas got personal with their bench in the fourth set. The fourth and final set ended 25-23, sending the Trojans packing without the opportunity for another fifth-set comeback.  

Nygaard’s squad now has two weeks to prepare for its game against crosstown rival No. 1 UCLA (11-0, 3-0), USC’s highest-ranked opponent yet. 

“Now we get to go into a two-week period where we can recover and get healthy and all that good stuff,” Nygaard said.

The Trojans and Bruins will meet first at Galen Center on March 3, followed by a rematch at Pauley Pavilion on March 6. It remains to be seen whether the bananas will find their way to Westwood.