No. 13 USC Men's Volleyball Knocks Off No. 6 BYU in Five-Set Senior Night Thriller - USC Athletics (2024)

LOS ANGELES –The 13th-ranked USC men's volleyball team (12-12, 3-7 MPSF) topped No. 6 BYU (16-8, 7-5) in a five-set thriller (20-25, 27-25, 26-28, 29-27, 18-16) on Senior Night at Galen Center on Saturday, April 6. The two teams fought through 241 rallies to determine a winner.

KEY PLAYERS

• Redshirt Fr. OPPNoah Robertsled the Trojans with career highs in kills (19), attacks (27), and hitting percentage (.593) and added a career-best nine digs to go with a career-high four blocks (one solo) and finished with 21.5 points.
• Jr. MBMarkus Olssonposted a career-high nine kills—including the final kill of the match on an ostrich-neck swing—and had career highs of 15 attacks and .400 hitting. He also registered career bests of six blocks and had three digs to finish the night with 12.0 points.
• So. OHDillon Kleinhad 16 kills to register double-digit kills for the 19th time this season (39th in his career). He also had six digs, five blocks, and three service aces to finish with 21.5 points.
• Fr. setterCaleb Blanchetteput up a career-best 60 assists to guide the Trojans to a .321 hitting percentage: the team's 13th match hitting over .300. He also had three blocks, three digs, and two kills.
• Sr. MBKyle Paulsonscored on 10 kills (3e, 19att, .368) for his first double-digit match of the season and added six blocks and a career-high seven digs to go with a service ace for 14.0 points.
• Jr. LIBAustin Stuardput up his sixth double-digit match of the season and finished with a match-high 11 digs.
• Redshirt Fr. OHRiley Hainescored 12.0 points with nine kills (4e, 18att, .278) to go with seven digs and four blocks.
• For the Cougars, Kupono Browne led with 20 kills (11e, 50att) but was held to a .180 hitting percentage. He still led all players with 27.5 points with five blocks and five service aces. Luke Benson had 15 kills and hit .312. Miks Ramanis added 16 kills with nine digs, five blocks, and five service aces for 23.5 points.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• USC hit .321 to BYU's .281 to out-hit its opponent for the 13th time this season. The Trojans also had the edge in blocks (15.0 to 12.5) and posted their 12th match in double-digit blocks. USC out-dug the Cougars, 50-42.
• The Cougars built a seven-point lead several times and completed a five-point win, 25-20, to open the match. Benson collected five of his kills in the opening frame as BYU hit .389. Klein matched it with five kills of his own, but the Trojans ran into 5.5 Cougar blocks to finish with a .192 hitting percentage on 26 swings.
• BYU led by as many as six points in the second set, but the Trojans stayed course to force a tie at 23-all. Roberts racked up six kills and four digs while Paulson had three kills and helped the Trojans hit .464 to complete a comeback win, 27-25. Browne had six kills and the Cougars hit .438 just a shade behind USC.
• In a mirror of set two, the Trojans led by as many as six points, but the Cougars fought back to get a 28-26 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match. Roberts added five more kills while Olsson had four to help USC hit .290, but Browne poured in six kills for BYU and Benson had three. BYU had five service aces including three by Browne who served two in a row for the win.
• USC put up 4.5 blocks and fought valiantly through 19 tie scores to force set five with a 29-27 win in the fourth. Klein and Roberts both had four kills apiece while Stuard racked up seven digs to help keep the Cougars at a .213 hitting percentage despite five more kills by Benson.
• The Trojans hit .364 in the final frame and finished with 11 kills with four from Roberts and three from Klein. USC also out-dug the Cougars, 10-6, and had 3.5 blocks to BYU's zero to finish off the win with an 18-16 result. The score was tied eight times and BYU registered a kill for a 16-14 score, but a challenge review reversed a call to make it 15-all on a net violation by the Cougars. BYU went ahead, 16-15, but Klein's kill earned sideout for the Trojans before a triple block gave USC match point. Olsson had the final say as his quick-set kill went off a defender and out of bounds to seal the victory.

UP NEXT

• USC concludes the regular season next weekend with a pair of matches at seventh-ranked Stanford (11-11, 4-6 MPSF). The Trojans and the Cardinal meet on a Pac-12 Bay Area broadcast on Friday (April 12) at 7 p.m. PT and then close out the two-match meeting on Saturday (April 13) at 6 p.m. The Galen Center will serve as host to the 2024 MPSF Tournament April 17-20. Tickets are now available at USCTrojans.com/tickets.

MATCH NOTES

• USC improved to 26-51 all-time against BYU and halted a three-match losing streak to the Cougars.
• The Trojans moved to 5-11 in matches with AVCA top 20 opponents this season.
• USC reached double-digit blocks for the 12th time this season and registered 15.0 blocks for the third time.
• The Trojans out-hit their opponent for the 13th time and hit over .300 for the 13th time.
• USC and BYU played a total of 241 rallies to determine a winner and went to extra points in four of the five sets.
• The Trojans played their longest match of the season at three hours and one minute of total elapsed time.
• In pre-match ceremonies, the Trojans honored seniorsJack Deuchar,Kyle Paulson, andJackson Reed.

For more information on the USC men's volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/MVB. Fans of the Trojans can follow @USCmensvolley on X and Instagram.