March 24, 2006

Box Score

LOS ANGELES - Juan Figueroa had 17 kills and C.J. Schellenberg added 15 kills to lead the No. 12-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 30-28, 30-22, 30-28 upset sweep over No. 4 Pepperdine in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday (March 24) in USC's Lyon Center.

The win was the Trojans' first over Pepperdine since 2001, snapping their 9-match losing skid to the Waves. It also was USC's first win over an opponent ranked as high as fourth since Troy beat No. 4 Lewis in 2003.

USC improved to 11-14 overall and 7-12 in the MPSF, while the Waves fell to 13-6 overall (the same as their MPSF record).

Schellenberg hit .464 in the match and added 5 digs, while Figueroa had 5 digs, 5 blocks and 2 aces. Teammate Joao Grangeiro had 9 kills, 7 digs and 2 aces, Chris Jones added 6 blocks in a rare start and Matt Mosko had 5 blocks. Luke Morris had 8 digs and Jimmy Killian had 39 assists and 4 blocks for USC.

For Pepperdine, John Parfitt had 16 kills and 7 digs, Jon Grobe had 12 kills and 7 digs, Tom Hulse had 7 blocks and both Andy Hein and Jonathan Winder had 5 blocks.

USC hit .238 to Pepperdine's .171. The Waves had 13 service errors to USC's 6.

The Trojans had Pepperdine on the ropes throughout the first game, building a 2-point lead at 15-13 and then at 25-23 before the Waves scored 3 unanswered points to forge ahead at 27-26. But USC scored the next 3 points and ended the game on a combo block by Mosko and Killian. USC took advantage of Pepperdine's 5 serving errors in the game (Troy had none). In the second game, USC broke a 10-10 tie with back-to-back points and then steadily pulled away. The Trojans hit .276 in that game to Pepperdine's .027 and also had 6.5 blocks. USC opened up a 6-0 lead in the third game behind a pair of Grangeiro aces and then built the margin to 10 points at 15-5 before Pepperdine slowly crept back. It was 28-22 USC when the Waves scored 6 of the next 7 points to pull within 1, but USC ended the match on a Schellenberg kill. Pepperdine used 9 blocks in that game to threaten the Trojans.

USC next concludes its home season with a non-conference match against Cal Baptist, the NAIA's co-No. 1-ranked team, on Wednesday (March 29) at 7 p.m. in the North Gym. The Trojans then play their final 3 MPSF matches on the road (April 5 at UC Santa Barbara, April 7 at Cal State Northridge and April 15 at Pepperdine).