USC Men's Volleyball Swept At Home By No. 5 Pepperdine

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Noah Dyer had 14 kills while hitting .414 and Jacob Steele added 12 kills to help the No. 5-ranked Pepperdine men's volleyball team sweep unranked USC, 25-23, 25-17, 30-28, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at USC's Galen Center on Wednesday (Feb. 24).

Pepperdine improved to 5-2 overall and in the MPSF, while USC dropped its third straight match to fall to 1-3 overall and in the MPSF.

The Trojans and Waves play again on Friday (Feb. 26) at 6 p.m. PT in Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.  The series' third meeting was originally scheduled to be played on Feb. 4 but was postponed due to COVID-19 issues in the USC program and has yet to be rescheduled.

Billy Fauntleroy had a match-best 22 kills while hitting .417 and added 6 digs to lead USC.  Teammate Cole Paxson had a match-high 13 digs.

Dyer, whose younger brother George plays for USC (he came in twice to serve in the match), added 6 digs for the Waves.  Spencer Wickens had 9 kills and 9 digs, while Trey Cole added 8 digs.  Bryce Dvorak, whose father Rudy and uncle Dusty were All-American setters at USC, had 36 assists for the Waves (his sister, Sevana, played beach volleyball at USC and his cousin Summer is on the USC women's tennis team).

Pepperdine hit .348 in the match to USC's .277.

Pepperdine got out to a quick 7-3 lead in the first set and extended it to 11-6 before USC tied it at 15-15, but the Waves scored the next 3 points and USC was never able to overcome the deficit despite hitting .419 in the set to Pepperdine's .400.

The Waves moved to a 7-4 edge in the second set and steadily pulled away while hitting .375.

In the third set, Pepperdine trailed 8-7 before scoring the next 5 points to move ahead 12-8, only to see the Trojans quickly recover by scoring 9 of the next 11 points to go up 17-14, however the Waves slowly crept back and then went on a 4-point run to forge a 24-22 lead before Troy tied it at 24-24, but the Waves soon after closed out the match by scoring the set's final 3 points.