Ryan Moss had a match-best 14 kills while hitting .565, Jack Wyett added 13 kills while hitting .579 and Gianluca Grasso had 10 kills while hitting .500 to help the No. 11-ranked USC men's volleyball team upset top-ranked, undefeated, defending NCAA champion Long Beach State, 25-21, 25-21, 25-17, in a non-conference match on Saturday (March 23) in USC's North Gym.
 
USC improved to 13-8 overall in 2019 and posted its first win over a top-ranked team since defeating defending NCAA champion UC Irvine on the road early in the 2013 season.  It ended USC's 4-match losing streak to the 49ers, dating to 2017, and was the Trojans' first sweep over LBSU since 2015.  Troy moved to 8-0 at home this season.
 
Long Beach State, which fell to 19-1 on the year, had its 23-match winning streak snapped (dating to a 5-set loss at Hawaii late in the 2018 season).  Before this USC match, the 49ers had lost only 4 sets all season, with USC taking the first one off LBSU in early January and UC Santa Barbara capturing 3 sets in a pair of losses last week.  It was the first time since that 2018 loss at Hawaii that Long Beach State had dropped consecutive sets.  It was also the first time LBSU was swept since its 2017 season-ender against BYU in the NCAA semifinals.  The 17 points LBSU scored in the third set was its fewest in a 25-point set since scoring 15 in a 3-0 loss to Penn State in 2015.
 
The match was played in the quaint North Gym, the original home of USC volleyball, because of a scheduling conflict in the Galen Center.
 
USC hit a blazing .493 (a LBSU opponent season high) to LBSU's season-low .215.  The Trojans also had more blocks (6.0 to 2.0) and digs (27-18).
 
Sam Lewis had 4 blocks for USC and teammate Matt Douglas had 9 digs, both match highs.
 
Kyle Ensing topped Long Beach State with 9 kills, while TJ DeFalco had 8 kills, 5 digs and 2 aces.
 
USC scored the first 2 points of the first set and never trailed while hitting .407.  The Trojans got off to a 7-2 lead in the second set and the 49ers couldn't catch up as USC hit .476.  The third set started like the first with USC tallying the first 2 points and then steadily pulling away while hitting .609.
 
USC now returns to Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play when its hosts No. 9 Stanford on March 29 and No. 8 BYU on March 30, with both matches starting at 7 p.m. PT in the Galen Center.