Alex Slaught. (via USC Athletics)

Playing back-to-back against the No. 7 BYU Cougars (9-3, 8-2 MPSF), the No. 2 USC men’s volleyball team (9-2, 8-2 MPSF) remains tied with the Cougars atop the MPSF.

On Thursday night, the Trojans dropped the first two sets to BYU, but rallied back and won the last three to win the match (20-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-23, 16-14).This was the third match in a row for the Trojans to go to the full five sets.

Junior outside hitter Alex Slaught completely dominated at the net with a career-best 24 kills. As a team, the Trojans only had a .209 hitting percentage, mostly because BYU’s height ruled the net with 20.5 blocks (USC only had eight).

The discrepancy in blocking is something that head coach Bill Ferguson sees that the team needs to work on.

“We’ve got to block a little bit better from a read situation,” Ferguson commented.

The Trojans fought hard through and through for the entire match—it was a hard-earned win. They rocked from the service line with 11 aces, and senior middle blocker Robert Feathers and Slaught tied the team-high four aces. Senior setter Micah Christenson ran the offense while tallying up 56 assists. To put that in perspective, BYU only tallied up 49 sets as a team (USC had 65). 

Friday night’s match, however, didn’t have as pleasant an outcome for the Trojans. Falling to BYU in four sets (20-25, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25), USC couldn’t quite pick up the intensity that they played with the night before.

The Trojans are a team built on playing and focusing on one moment at a time, and they just couldn’t seem to find their moment in the first two sets. They caught a glimpse of one for the majority of the third set, but they lost it about a quarter of the way through the fourth set.

Even in the loss, Ferguson was proud of his team. They’ve had a long past two weeks with three of their four matches going to long five sets.

“Our guys fought, they never gave up,” Ferguson stated. “I’m proud of them for that.”

In some respects, it was a statistically similar night for the Trojans and Cougars—except for the obvious result. Slaught led the team with 19 kills, Christenson had 38 assists, and BYU racked up 15.5 blocks. But USC couldn’t generate enough at the net and had a hitting percentage of .149 compared to BYU’s .239. 

Again Ferguson emphasized the need for the team to improve their blocking. He compared the block to a blitz defense in football and said that they will have to improve their ability to read, block and cover the net.

“You can blitz all the time, but something is going to be wide open if you do that.” Ferguson compared to adjusting his team’s approach to reading their opponent’s offense and adjusting the block.

The biggest drop off for the Trojans was their serving; they only recorded two aces (both from red shirt outside hitter Christopher Orenic) and committed 16 service errors. For a team that is typically so dominant from the back line, that had quite an impact on their game. Compounded with the fact that the Cougars served significantly better than Thursday, their serving threw USC off of their receiving game, which made it difficult to run an effective offense. 

“[BYU] served entirely better,” Ferguson explained. “That’s what swung the match.”

The Trojans can definitely use the next couple days of rest. Reflecting after the loss should prove to be beneficial to the team in the long run. 

“We’re going to have to get a little rest, hit the video room, and get better,” Ferguson indicated when talking about the time leading up to their next match.  

The Trojans' next games are on Wednesday the 18th at 7pm at No. 8 UC Santa Barbara and on Sunday the 22nd at 7:30pm at No. 11 UCLA. 

Contact Staff Reporter Jodee Sullivan here and on Twitter here.