LOS ANGELES - The UC San Diego men's volleyball team was beaten by No. 7 USC, 3-0, in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) action at the Galen Center on Wednesday night. Set scores were 25-19, 25-13 and 25-16.
The nationally-televised contest marked UCSD's debut on the third-year Pac-12 Networks.
With the defeat, UCSD is 2-16 overall and 0-13 in the MPSF. USC snapped a four-match losing skid after a perfect 7-0 start to its 2015 season, in improving to 10-5 overall and 9-5 in league play. The Trojans had taken the earlier meeting between the sides in La Jolla, also 3-0, on Jan. 22.
USC tallied the first three points of the night on a Triton attack error, triple block, and service ace by star setter Micah Christenson. A combination block by Shayne Beamer and Kirill Rudenko on Josh Kirchner made it 7-6 in favor of the Trojans. Tanner Syftestad's kill down the line on the left side off a nice set by freshman libero Tyler Bird made it 10-8. Syftestad and Mathew Schnitzer then teamed up in the middle to deny Alex Slaught and stay close, down 11-10. Kirchner's ace, however, took the teams into the first-set media timeout with the Trojans holding a 15-11 advantage. They eventually went up 19-14 as UCSD called its first timeout.
Syftestad posted a solo denial of Christopher Orenic for the second game's initial point and UCSD's first and only lead of the evening. USC scored the next four, but the Tritons managed to level matters at 5-5 on a Syftestad kill, Trojan attack error, and their lone ace, served by Beamer. Back-to-back Robert Feathers kills later extended the home side's lead to 16-10, with Slaught then also sneaking his spike through the Triton block for 17-10 as USC took command.
Christenson began the third stanza with his third ace, and successive combo blocks by Feathers and Kirchner, in between two Kirchner kills, pushed USC ahead, 5-1. Slaught's ace punctuated a 3-0 run for the Trojans at 10-4, with a second 3-0 stretch forcing UCSD's first timeout at 13-5. Freshman outside hitter Luke La Mont's kill finally stopped the bleeding after USC had extended it out to a five-point sequence, with Syftestad finding an open space on an ensuing attack, but it was 15-7 at that stage. La Mont and Schnitzer combined a short time later to stuff Feathers for 17-10.
"Going into the match, we knew USC to be a very good serving team," said UCSD head coach Kevin Ring. "They have Micah Christenson, who brings a lot of pace and variety to his serve. Our goal was to make a lot of good passes, and really be committed to the pass, so the passers bear down and know their lanes. We wanted to get passes to the net, center of the court, so we could run our middles. When we did that tonight, we certainly had some pretty good offense. We had good production from our middle hitters in the first game.
"Our passing kind of dropped off (after the opening frame), with a lot of passes off the net. Our offense slowed down, and we had trouble locating some sets. Even out of system, it's still really important to get a quality set, with tempo and location, to get a quality swing. We just didn't do enough there. There was a pretty big difference, with 19 digs on our part to 29 for USC. A lot of that is just the pace they're hitting the ball at, with some quality swings we were unable to get tonight."
Syftestad put down nine kills to lead UCSD in that category for the sixth successive match. Schnitzer collected five kills on .300 hitting (5-2-10), with each adding a pair of blocks, as did Beamer.
Christenson, firmly in the mix to be the setter for the U.S. national team at the 2016 Rio Olympics, finished with 38 assists, five digs and his match-high three aces. Opposite hitter Kirchner, who missed the previous two matches through injury, wound up with 11 kills and five blocks. Feathers had nine kills on 13 swings (.462)
UCSD has a home pair coming up this weekend, as it hosts MPSF foe California Baptist on Friday, March 6, before welcoming non-conference opposition in Ball State the next night. First serve is set for 7 p.m. for both matches at RIMAC Arena.
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