Men's Volleyball
    USC Men's Volleyball Defeats Cal Baptist
    Trojans snap 4-match losing skid.
    Micah Christenson
    Micah Christenson

    Feb. 14, 2013

    Final Stats | Box ScoreGet Acrobat Reader

    Tanner Jansen had 14 kills and 7 digs, while teammates Robert Feathers and Austin Rysyk added 12 and 11 kills respectively, as the No. 10-ranked USC men's volleyball team snapped a 4-match losing streak with a 25-21, 25-22, 18-25, 26-24 victory over No. 11 Cal Baptist in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Thursday (Feb. 14) at USC's Galen Center.

    USC improved to 3-5 overall and in the MPSF, while first-year MPSF member Cal Baptist dropped to 6-7 overall and 3-5 in the league. The Trojans ended the longest in-season losing skid since 2008.

    USC got the victory despite getting outhit (.250 to .194) and outblocked (12.0 to 5.0) by the Lancers. But Troy served 7 aces, including 6 by Micah Christenson, who also had 13 digs. Feathers hit .579.

    Levi Cabral led Cal Baptist with 15 kills and added 5 blocks, while Guilherme Koepp had 14 kills (hitting .444) and 12 digs, Aaron McCalmont had 12 kills, 13 digs and 4 blocks and Jon Waber had 5 blocks.

    USC trailed 9-8 in the first set before scoring 8 unanswered points, the last 7 of those with Christenson serving (he had 4 aces during that span, including 3 in a row). Troy broke a 14-14 tie in the second set by tallying back-to-back points and CBU could never catch up. The Lancers bounced back in the third set, opening up an early 4-2 edge and steadily building on it. The fourth set seesawed throughout, with CBU forging a 13-9 lead before USC caught up at 18-18 only to see the Lancers score the next 2 points. But USC went on a 3-point run to go up 24-23 and then the Trojans closed out the match on a kill by Cristian Rivera followed by an ace by Josh Kirchner.

    USC next hosts No. 1 BYU in an MPSF match on Saturday (Feb. 16) at 7 p.m. in the Galen Center.