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Men’s Volleyball: CSUN swept by undefeated USC Trojans

Sarah Goulding

January 31, 2015

Junior outside hitter Sam Holt goes high for a kill in their loss to the undefeated USC Trojans. Photo credit: Kelly Rosales

The No. 2 USC Trojans have yet to lose this season, and showed no mercy while playing the Matadors as the Trojans swept CSUN 16-25, 17-25, 17-25.

CSUN (4-5, 2-3 MPSF) hit .224 to USC’s .543. The Trojans (7-0, 6-0 MPSF) racked up 44 kills, while the Matadors had only 27. Offensively the Trojans out-performed the Matadors; serving and hitting much harder and more consistent than CSUN could.

“We don’t anticipate anybody serving like this again,” said Assistant Coach Theo Edwards. “We really had a hard time running our offense, because we were so out of system.”

Senior Travis Magorien tries to pull one back for CSUN as the men's volleyball team faced undefeated USC Friday night. The Matadors were swept as the Trojans remained undefeated. Photo credit: Kelly Rosales

Junior outside hitter Sam Holt had 10 kills and senior setter Travis Magorien had 12 assists. Sophomore outside hitter Bradley Sakaida had five digs, while senior outside hitter Kyle Stevenson had two serving aces.

Both the first and second sets seemed to come and go quickly. The first few points went to the Trojans and were followed by countless kills. CSUN could not keep up with the performance that USC was putting on and fell flat. The first set, CSUN hit .231 and .273 in the second, they had a combined 19 kills on 48 attempts for both.

The third set was completely different than the two prior. Though the first point still went to USC, CSUN was able to tie the score at 4-4 and then took the lead 5-4. The two volleyed the lead back and forth, each taking one and two-point runs.

Men's volleyball players Bradley Sakaida (left) and Sam Holt (right) go for the ball in their loss to the undefeated USC Trojans. Photo credit: Kelly Rosales

“We started to play with a little bit of passion. I think it was a little upsetting that we had been losing most of the match and Sam really stepped up in that set and started killing a bunch of balls for us,” Assistant Coach Theo Edwards said.

When the score was tied at 11, USC went on a two-point run and took the lead 13-11. CSUN called time out and upon returning, pulled one back, but then gave USC another two-point run making it 12-15. From then on, it became a repeat of the previous two sets. The Matadors began to give in to the Trojan’s pressure, and lost the match.

“We served well at times, but the consistency from USC was outstanding; you have to take off your hat to a team that serves that well for an entire match. I think that’s why they’re one of the best teams in our conference, one of the best teams in the country, and THE best team in our conference,” said Edwards.

The Matadors return home Wednesday Feb. 4 to take on UC Santa Barbara at 7 pm in the Matadome.