USC Men's Volleyball Beats Concordia To Snap 7-Match Losing Skid
Billy Fauntleroy had 17 kills and Clay Dickinson added 16 kills while hitting .429 to help the USC men's volleyball team snap a 7-match losing streak by coming back to beat visiting Concordia, 24-26, 25-15, 25-17, 25-18, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Galen Center on Saturday (March 13).
USC improved to 2-7 overall and in the MPSF. Concordia, which lost to the Trojans for the first time in their past 5 meetings, dropped to 3-7 overall and in the MPSF.
The Trojans hit a season-high .441 to the Eagles' .160. USC also had more blocks (11.5 to 7.0) and digs (36 to 26).
Fauntleroy had 6 digs and 4 blocks, while Dickinson had 5 digs and 3 blocks. Teammate Brandon Browning added 11 kills (hitting .529), Lucas Frassrand had 8 kills (hitting. 636) and a match-high 6 blocks, Chris Hall had a match-best 10 digs with 3 blocks (2 solo), Cole Paxson had 7 digs and Vecas Lewin had 6 kills (hitting .500) 3 blocks.
For Concordia, Raymond Barsemian had a match-high 19 kills, Jordan Hoppe added 10 kills and 5 digs, Jonathan Carlson had 7 kills, 5 digs and 5 blocks and Enriques Addison had 8 digs.
USC overcame a 12-9 deficit in the opening set to tie it at 12-12, but Concordia soon after scored back-to-back points for a 19-17 before the Trojans did the same down 24-22 to knot it at 24-24 only to see the Eagles tally the set's final 2 points (CU hit .379 in the set).
USC went on a 7-0 run to forge a 14-7 lead in the second set and cruised in the rest of the way while hitting .500.
With the third set tied at 4-4, USC scored 7 of the next 8 points to open up an 11-5 lead and slowly extended it while hitting .407.
A 4-point run by the Trojans early in the fourth set turned a 5-3 deficit into a 7-5 lead and USC then pushed it to 12-7, all the edge it needed to close out the match while hitting .571 in the set.
USC now goes on the road next week for a lone MPSF match at No. 7 Grand Canyon on St. Patrick's Day (March 17) at 6 p.m. MT/PT.