USC Men's Volleyball Travels to Phoenix for Final Two MPSF Matches Against Grand Canyon

THIS WEEK
This week, the No. 5 USC men's volleyball team (19-6), coming off a pair of MPSF victories over Concordia, will travel to Phoenix for its final week of conference play. The Trojans will first challenge the Lopes on Friday (Apr. 15) at 6 p.m. PT, and return for a rematch against Grand Canyon on Saturday (Apr. 16) at 4 p.m. PT. The results of this weekend's matches will determine USC's seed in the MPSF Tournament. 

Both matches will be live streamed at USCTrojans.com. 

FOLLOW THE TROJANS
All of USC's home matches in the Galen Center are video-streamed live for free on USCTrojans.com, except for matches televised live on Pac-12 Network.  USC's online announcers are ex-Trojan player and assistant coach Mark Beltran and onetime Northeastern player/Winthrop assistant coach Paul Duchesne.  Fans also can follow USC home matches through Live Stats at USCTrojans.com and all matches via Twitter (@USCmensvolley).

Live streaming and stat links for away matches can be found at USCTrojans.com.

RANKINGS
USC is ranked 5th in the current AVCA Division I-II Top 15 poll, while Grand Canyon is No. 10.
 

"IT'S ABOUT THE SEED!"
Should the Trojans win both matches this weekend, USC would earn the two seed in the conference tournament. The Trojans could also earn the two seed with a split this week, provided they won the sets/points battle over GCU. In the event USC, GCU, and Pepperdine each finish 7-5, the highest percentage of sets won in the head-to-head matches between the tied teams would determine the seeds (each team would have been 1-1 in matches vs. the others). The Trojans can do no worse than the four seed. 

STATS OF NOTE
As a team, USC is in the Top 10 nationally in four statistical categories: fourth in assists (12.39 per set, and second in MPSF), fifth in digs (9.34 per set, first in MPSF), fifth in hitting percentage (.341, second in MPSF), and fifth in kills (13.02 per set, third in MPSF).

OPPONENTS
The Trojans are 4-8 all-time against the Lopes dating back to their first meeting in 2010.    

LAST MATCHES
See page 13 for recaps of USC's most recent matches: a 3-0 sweep at home over Concordia on Apr. 8,  and another 3-0 victory over the Eagles in a rematch on Apr. 9 in Irvine, Calif.