No. 10 USC Men's Volleyball Sweeps No. 14 UC Irvine 3-0 at Home
LOS ANGELES--Sam Kobrine had 14 kills while hitting .565 to help the No. 10 ranked USC men's volleyball team sweep UC Irvine 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-17) at the Galen Center on Wednesday (Jan. 26).
USC improves to 6-1 on the 2022 season, while the Anteaters dropped to 3-4 overall.
This was Kobrine's strongest hitting percentage this season (with his previous best marked at .364 against UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 7). He also decorated his stat sheet with 3 digs, 2 blocks, 2 assists and 1 ace.
Redshirt sophomore Simon Gallas, the MPSF Offensive Player of the Week, tallied on 11 kills of his own (.455) and added on 4 blocks, 2 digs and an ace. Junior Lucas Frassrand was extremely efficient out of the middle, going 8-for-9 with zero errors (.889) and recorded 3 blocks, 2 digs and an assist.
For UC Irvine, Cole Gillis collected 8 kills hitting .105, while Hilir Henno added 7 kills hitting .111.
As a team, USC hit. 397 compared to UC Irvine's .105.
The Trojans started fast at 4-1 in the first set and continued to maintain a steady lead. Hall distributed the ball well across the net and connected particularly well with middle Lucas Frassrand who was very efficient and went 3-for-3. Gallas hit .571 in the first set going 4-for-7 to keep the Trojans preserving their strong lead. USC closed out the set with an ace from Browning to win 25-16.
Frassrand continued to be unstoppable as he added 3 more kills in the second set (6-for-6 on the match at that time). The two teams exchanged points back and forth throughout the entire set but the energy shifted at 19-18 when Browning scored his second ace of the night. The Trojans continued to score points and won the set 25-20 to take a 2-0 lead on the match.
When this Trojan team holds the momentum, they are challenging to stop. USC continued to play its brand of volleyball and sprinted to a 9-4 lead in the third set. Kobrine was a continuous threat from the outside and the Trojans never lost the lead. USC won the final set 25-17 to claim the match.
Up next, the Trojans travel down the 405 freeway for a rematch against the Anteaters on Friday (Jan. 28) at UC Irvine's Bren Center at 7 p.m. PT.