USC looks to avenge NCAA final loss to Pepperdine on the road

Last year, the USC men’s volleyball team got swept in three quick sets at Pepperdine.

It might be a little bit different this time around.

“That [loss] is in the back of everyone’s mind,” junior outside hitter Murphy Troy said.

The Trojans (6-1, 4-0) come into the match at Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse tonight as the top-ranked team in the nation, while the No. 11 Waves (1-4, 1-3) are reeling from the loss of their superstar.

Even though the Waves finished second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation last year, they lost 2009 National Player of the Year and three-time All-American Paul Carroll to graduation and are struggling to learn a new, quicker offense.

But the Trojans aren’t taking the Waves lightly; they know it’s not easy playing at Pepperdine.

“It’s one of the toughest environments in NCAA volleyball and Pepperdine’s the kind of school and program you can’t underestimate,” junior outside hitter Tri Bourne said.

That said, the Trojans come into the match boasting the best record in the MPSF, and they are off to their best start since 2000. They have five returning starters from last year’s squad, which beat Pepperdine in the MPSF Championship.

USC could get another victory if it pulls out the win tonight — albeit only a mental victory.

“We divided our season into three segments, and Friday will be the final piece of the first segment,” USC coach Bill Ferguson said. “If we could finish the first third being undefeated in the league, that’s going to be a huge deal.”

One of the bright spots for the Trojans during the first third of the season has been Bourne. Bourne was part of the talented recruiting class that included 2009 All-American Troy and 2009 third team All-Americans, junior setter Riley McKibbin and junior middle blocker Austin Zahn.

Yet Bourne was hampered by injuries in his first two seasons. He missed the fall of his freshman year due to appendicitis, and he missed significant time the summer and fall of his sophomore year with a herniated disc.

This is the first time Bourne has been able to train year-round, and it’s paying off. Bourne has a .345 hitting percentage and averages 3.23 kills per game, which are both well above his career average.

With other teams focusing on Troy, Bourne can take advantage and punish the opposition.

“He’s an unbelievably talented young man,” Ferguson said. “He’s as good an outside hitter as anyone in the country. He’s just been sitting in the weeds the past few years.”

With a healthy Bourne, the Trojans have improved a lot over the first two weeks of the season in the serving and passing category.

Blocking, however, is an area the team realizes it needs to improve upon.

USC has been out-blocked in the last two matches, which have been sweeps. While the Trojans focused on offense the first part of the season, the team turned its attention to defense this week as they worked on blocking.

Ferguson isn’t too worried about the team’s problems in the blocking category as it is built to succeed without needing to block.

“Part of what we do is not play to get the stuff block — we’re a better digging and transition team right now,” Ferguson said. “We’ve been so good over the past few years defensively digging the ball.”

Also, the fact that the Trojans get a lot of aces — USC is third in the MSPF averaging 1.46 aces per game — means that there’s less opportunities to block balls.

If the Trojans can step it up defensively, they will be tough to beat. But they know that Pepperdine has the talent to be a very competitive team.

“They’re going to be heard from and that’s the scary thing about them,” Ferguson said. “They have unbelievably talented players, it’s just a matter of when they put things together.”