Feb. 15, 2000

LOS ANGELES--Eli Fairfield had 26 kills and 15 digs, both match highs, to lead the No. 2-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 15-11, 15-13, 15-11 victory over No. 14 UC Santa Barbara in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest on Tuesday (Feb. 15) at the USC North Gym.

USC improved to 10-1 overall and remained unbeaten in the MPSF at 7-0, while UC Santa Barbara evened its record at 4-4 overall and 3-3 in the MPSF. The Trojans are off to their best start since 1994.

Ryan Thurlow, who started in place of an injured Brook Billings, and Trevor Julian each had 15 kills for USC, while teammate Mark Dusharme added 10 kills while hitting .455. Billings, USC's kill leader in 2000 who missed his first match of the season, will be sidelined for 2 weeks while recovering from a stress fracture in his lower left leg.

For the Gauchos, Kevin Collins had 19 kills and 5 blocks, Chris Komer had 12 kills (hitting .800) and 8 blocks, David Kohl had 11 kills and Jan Carlo Zegarra added 10 digs and 6 blocks.

USC, which outhit UCSB .349 to .271, came back from an 8-3 deficit to win the first game of the 2-hour 17-minute match. The Gauchos had twice as many blocks as Troy, 14.0 to 7.0. The Trojans served 8 aces, but had 34 serving errors. USC next travels to No. 5 BYU for an MPSF match this Friday (Feb. 18).