The Trojans are looking to improve their blocking as their season continues (Charlie Magovern/Neon Tommy).

Coming from a week off, the No. 7 Trojans (10-5, 9-5 MPSF) fell to No. 3 UC Irvine (17-3, 12-2 MPSF) in five tough sets (25-20, 25-18, 19-25, 17-25, 13-15) but rooted UC San Diego (1-14, 0-11 MPSF) the following night in three quick sets (25-19, 25-13, 25-16).

Heading into this week’s matches, the Trojans—who lost the last three matches—focused on technique and getting back to the unstoppable level of play that they had at the beginning of the season. 

In the first two sets against the Anteaters, the Trojans looked back in top form. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Christopher Orenic tallied a team-high 12 kills, followed by junior outside hitter Alex Slaught with 11 kills.

The Trojans’ offense looked clean, effective and powerful through the first two. They were nailing spikes, catching the Anteaters off their guard and placing shots where UCI had weak court coverage. 

At the end of the second set, it looked as if USC was going to run away with the match and get back on track for the season: similar to how they were placed back on the national stage after beating UCI earlier in the season.

But, in the third and fourth sets, UC Irvine’s offense kicked it into gear and hit .528 and .700 to USC’s .167 and .400, respectively. 

Head coach Bill Ferguson pointed out that UCI picked up their play immensely, while the Trojans’ play digressed. 

“We were just less than ourselves as the match went on,” Ferguson commented.

A slow start to the fifth set kept the Trojans from finding a rhythm early—which is key to winning the fifth set. They were able to take the lead at 7-5, but the Anteaters scored six of the following seven points to go ahead 11-8 and ride their lead to end the match. 

The last four consecutive times that the Trojans and Anteaters have faced off have all gone to five sets—with the teams splitting even. 

A high note for the Trojans was that they recorded 7 aces, with Orenic recording three. USC hasn’t been as effective from the backline in a while. 

In reflecting on the match, even though they lost, Ferguson still found some positives about his team’s play. He was pleased with the team’s passing, as they’ve been struggling the last couple of weeks.

The Trojans passed much better than they have recently been passing (Charlie Magovern/Neon Tommy).

The following night, the Trojans were back on the court to once again try and snap their four-match losing skid. This time, they passed with flying colors and swept the Tritons in three fast sets. 

Even though UCSD had yet to win a match in MPSF play, Ferguson made it a point to the team that they were not going to overlook the Tritons.

“They’re that team that scraps,” Ferguson stated. “They play hard all of the time.”

Junior opposite Josh Kirchner came back from an ankle injury after missing the previous two and recorded a team-high 11 kills and one ace. Senior setter Micah Christenson tallied up a team-best three aces. 

Overall, the Trojans’ offense let loose against the Tritons, as they had a .427 hitting percentage in the match—the Tritons only hit .072 (they hit .000 in the final two). 

Serving as a confidence boost, the match against UCSD should right the course for the remainder of the season for the Trojans. For a team that was 7-0 at the start of the season—their best start since 1991—they probably didn’t expect to now have a 10-5 record. Of course, it would be nice to still be undefeated, but the Trojans still have plenty of sets to play to get back into their groove and play well in the MPSF Tournament and NCAA Tournament. 

Despite splitting the matches at home, Ferguson sees that his team will be in good shape with the rest of their season. He pointed out that “in the grand scheme of things,” the team is okay. Pepperdine is the only team in the top-5 of the MPSF left on the Trojans’ schedule, and all of the top teams still have yet to play each other.

“I don’t want to go Aaron Rodgers and relax,” Ferguson mentioned. “But we’re done with the toughest share of our schedule.”

With two home, non-conference matches coming up on their schedule, the Trojans will have a chance to get back to playing their game and add some more victories to their win column.

“We need to take care of business at home,” Ferguson commented. “We have to get back on the winning track.”

Catch the Trojans try to build up a win streak next when they face No. 15 Penn State (6-9, 4-0 EIVA) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Lindenwood (4-6, 2-5 MIVA) on Thursday at 7 p.m., both at the Galen Center. 

Contact Staff Reporter Jodee Sullivan here. Follow her on Twitter here.