Men's Volleyball
    USC Men's Volleyball Falls At No. 2 UC Irvine
    Jeff Carlson had 12 kills and 7 digs for Trojans.
    Steven Shandrick
    Steven Shandrick

    Jan. 27, 2012

    Box Score Get Acrobat Reader

    The No. 2-ranked UC Irvine men's volleyball team beat No. 5 USC in 4 sets, 25-17, 23-25, 25-21, 25-16, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at Irvine on Friday (Jan. 27).

    The Trojans, who lost a pair of matches last weekend at No. 1 BYU, now have lost 3 consecutive matches after beginning the season at 3-0. USC is now 3-3 overall and 2-3 in the MPSF, while UC Irvine improved to 7-2 overall and 3-2 in the MPSF.

    Tony Ciarelli had 14 kills for USC, while Jeff Carlson added 12 kills (hitting .304) and 7 digs and Henry Cassiday had 10 digs.

    For UCI, Kevin Tillie had a match-best 18 kills while hitting .567 and Carson Clark had 10 kills (hitting .308) with 7 digs, 5 blocks and 4 aces.

    The Anteaters hit .333 to USC's .234 and had more blocks (13.0 to 4.0) and aces (8 to 3).

    USC fell behind 6-3 in the first set and could never catch up as UCI hit .591 to Troy's .290. The second set was tied at 23-23 before a Steven Shandrick kill and an Anteater hitting error gave the win to the Trojans, who hit .417 to UCI's .118. UC Irvine scored 4 consecutive points in the third set to build a comfortable 21-17 lead and was never threatened while hitting .364 to USC's .042. The fourth set was tight midway through before a 5-0 UCI run gave the Anteaters all the cushion it needed at 22-15.

    USC next plays at UC San Diego for an MPSF match on Saturday (Jan. 28) at 7 p.m.