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Jan. 8, 2002
LOS ANGELES - All-American outside hitter Brook Billings had a match-high 16 kills and 3 aces to propel the USC men's volleyball team to a season-opening win over La Verne, 30-27, 30-24, 30-25, in a non-conference match on Tuesday (Jan. 8) in the USC North Gym.
La Verne, one of the top teams in NCAA Division III, dropped to 1-3.
Billings hit .478 for the night, while junior middle blocker Josh Day added 7 kills while hitting .500. Freshman middle blocker Phil Small, at 6-11 the tallest Trojan volleyballer ever, had 9 kills and a match-best 6 blocks in his USC debut.
Senior outside hitter Nate Michael led the Leopards with 12 kills and 3 blocks, while senior outside hitter Will Paulson had 6 digs.
USC outhit La Verne, .256 to .123, and had more team blocks, 9.5 to 4.0.
The Trojans next will participate in the Wyndham Garden/West Coast Challenge at UC Irvine this weekend, beginning with a match on Friday (Jan. 11) against Pepperdine at 5 p.m. Then on Saturday (Jan. 12), Troy plays UCLA at noon and UC Irvine at 5 p.m.
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