Throughout the 2026 season, No. 6 USC men’s volleyball has thrived at staving off one of the sport’s most disheartening moments: the sweep. Entering their final series of the regular season against No. 4 Pepperdine, the Trojans had not been swept in any of their first 21 matches and had earned 11 3-0 victories of their own.

Against the Waves, however, that streak came to a screeching halt.

In its final two matches of the regular season, USC (17-6, 9-5 MPSF) suffered back-to-back 3-0 sweeps against Pepperdine (22-5, 13-1), denying the Trojan seniors one last win on their home court in the first of the two. The Trojans fell 25-21, 25-23, 29-27 in a tight battle at home Thursday before taking a 25-20, 25-22, 25-18 defeat in Malibu on Saturday.

USC broke a streak of 38 consecutive matches winning at least one set, dating back to early last season. The losses also marked the Trojans’ first time being swept twice in one series since doing so against crosstown rival UCLA in April 2023, during a sub-.500 campaign.

Errors doom Trojans in Senior Day loss

The start of Thursday’s match set the tone for what would be a tightly contested series, featuring nine ties in the first set alone; neither squad led by more than 3 points until the Waves secured the 25-21 victory on a service ace. Despite a dismal .200 hitting percentage, the Trojans managed to stay close thanks to 11 Pepperdine errors in the set.

Star senior outside hitter Dillon Klein was held to just one kill in the first set but came alive in the second, where he earned eight of his team-high 14 kills on the day. As a team, the Trojans racked up 17 kills to just four attack errors for a blistering .500 hitting percentage; however, a surge in service errors — six compared to just one from the Waves — ultimately made the difference in the 25-23 loss.

Facing a 2-0 deficit, USC would’ve needed a miracle to pull off a near-impossible come-from-behind win — while no such miracle materialized, the Trojans did everything they could to give themselves a chance. The third set saw 19 ties in a dramatic back-and-forth affair, with sophomore outside hitter Sterling Foley notching six kills and Klein tacking on five of his own.

However, USC’s error struggles would prove to be fatal: With the score tied 27-27, the Trojans committed back-to-back attack errors — their fifth and sixth of the set — to give Pepperdine the 3-0 win on the night.

Aside from Klein and Foley, who finished with 14 and 12 kills, respectively, no other Trojan recorded more than five kills. As a team, USC lagged miles behind the Waves in most major areas — including hitting .321, compared to Pepperdine’s .360 — but managed to outblock them at 8.5 to five, thanks in large part to six block assists from sophomore middle blocker Parker Tomkinson.

Same story in Saturday sweep

With Thursday’s loss in the rear view, the Trojans traveled to Pepperdine on Saturday looking to flip the script at Firestone Fieldhouse. 

However, those dreams quickly came to a halt in the first set due to the same issues as Thursday: poor hitting and error rates. USC put up just nine kills — including four from sophomore outside hitter Christian Connell — to go along with six errors, opening the door for a 25-20 win for the Waves.

Unlike the first set, the Trojans were much stronger on offense in the second, hitting .438 with 18 kills. Similar to the first set, Pepperdine was even stronger, hitting .560. Despite being on top for much of the set and leading by as many as four points, USC was still unable to find a way around the Waves, losing its fifth consecutive set, 25-22.

By the third set, the Trojans appeared to have run out of steam — and Pepperdine certainly took advantage, storming out to an early 6-1 lead and never looking back. After a powerful second set, USC’s offense once again lagged at a .150 hitting percentage, allowing the Waves to cruise to a 25-18 win and secure their second 3-0 sweep of the Trojans in three days.

USC’s offensive struggles were best represented by its star player, Klein, who was held to single-digit kills for just the third time this season. Klein also committed five attack errors and four service errors on the day, heavily contributing to the team’s respective counts of 16 and 12.

Klein’s nine kills tied for the team lead with Connell, who reached the mark for the third time in his last four matches after doing so just twice in his first 12. Freshman outside hitter Cooper Keane was close behind with seven, also adding multiple digs for the 10th consecutive match.

With the regular season at an end, USC now looks ahead to the MPSF Tournament, where it will play as the conference’s No. 3 seed. If the Trojans win the tournament, they would secure a spot in the 12-team NCAA Tournament as the MPSF’s automatic qualifier; otherwise, they would need to be selected to the field as one of five at-large bids.

USC will kick off the conference tournament by playing against Vanguard University (12-13, 8-6) on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. PDT in Provo, Utah.