MPSF Volleyball Results, Feb. 22
Feb. 22, 2017 *LONG BEACH STATE 3, Cal Baptist 1 (24-26, 25-12, 25-14, 25-19)
Recap Soon
*Usc 3, CSUN 2 (25-22, 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 15-10)
Recap by USC
LOS ANGELES—Lucas Yoder had 24 kills while hitting .395 to help the No. 14-ranked USC men’s volleyball team hang on for a 25-22, 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 15-10 win at No. 11 Cal State Northridge in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Wednesday (Feb. 22). It was the second match in a row where USC captured the first 2 sets before winning in 5 sets, after outlasting Pepperdine last week. It also was USC’s third consecutive win, all over higher ranked teams (No. 6 Stanford and No. 9 Pepperdine), and gave Troy its first 3-match winning streak since the end of the 2015 season. In avenging a 3-set sweep by CSUN at the Galen Center last month, the Trojans improved to 6-9 overall and 5-7 in the MPSF. The Matadors fell to 10-6 overall and 3-6 in the MPSF. Lucas Lossone added 12 kills and 6 blocks for USC, while Andy Benesh had 7 kills and a match-best 10 blocks, Woody Cook had 7 kills and 10 digs and Matt Douglas had a match-leading 11 digs. For Cal State Northridge, Arvis Greene had a match-high 25 kills (hitting .383), Dimitar Kalchev added 16 kills, 8 digs and 6 aces and Josiah Byers had 8 kills (hitting .500) and 5 blocks. USC hit .274 to CSUN’s .254 and the Trojans had more blocks (13.0 to 9.0) and digs (40 to 31). But the Matadors served 7 aces to USC’s 2. USC used a 3-0 run in the first set to build a 10-7 lead and held off a late charge by the Matadors. The Trojans were trailing 12-10 in the second set before scoring 5 consecutive points to forge ahead, 15-12, and built the lead to 22-16 before once again holding off a surge by CSUN (Troy hit .367 in the set). Cal State Northridge scored 4 of the first 5 points of the third set and steadily built on its lead. USC got out to a 4-1 edge in the fourth set, but CSUN tied it at 7-7 and then went on a 3-0 run to go up 13-10, a margin USC could not overcome while the Matadors hit .375. In the fifth set, USC scored 3 points in a row to move out to a 6-3 lead, all the margin it needed to capture the match. USC next travels to No. 2 Long Beach State for an MPSF match on Friday (Feb. 24) at 7 p.m. PT.