Feb. 19, 2000
PROVO, Utah -- The fifth-ranked BYU men's volleyball team came from behind to knock off top-ranked USC, 5-15, 15-7, 14-16, 17-15, 15-11, on Friday (Feb. 18), recording its 37th straight victory in the Smith Fieldhouse.
With the victory the Cougars improve to 11-3 overall and 8-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, while USC drops to 10-2 and suffered its first MPSF loss in 8 matches.
The Trojans were without kill leader Brook Billings, who is out another week with a stress fracture in his lower left leg.
In game one, USC looked as if it would make quick work of the Cougars, jumping out to a 12-5 lead behind the offensive attack of Eli Fairfield, who picked up six of his match-leading 42 kills on the night. Trevor Julian and Beau Rawi each added five kills for the Trojans as USC hit over 47 percent at the net. USC held BYU to a season-low .048 hitting percentage by out-blocking the Cougars, 4.0-2.5. USC also added 13 digs, while the BYU defense managed just eight digs in the game.
In the second game of the match, BYU turned things around hitting .353, while holding USC to an 18.6 percent effort at the net. Mike Wall recorded six of his team leading 23 kills in game two, while the BYU defense outblocked the Trojans, 7.5 to 1.0. The Cougars took a 6-2 advantage before USC made a run to cut the lead to 6-4. From that point on, the Cougar offense went on a 9-3 run to cap the 15-7 win.
The Cougars looked to take a 2-1 advantage in the match after taking a 12-7
lead in game three. Amid a series of sideouts, BYU extended its lead to 14-12
and was serving for game point. The Trojans showed their poise, though, and
tied things up at 14-14 on a BYU hitting error. Fairfield capped the USC
comeback, scoring the TrojanāTMs 15th and 16th points to seal the
come-from-behind victory, 16-14. Fairfield chalked up a game-high 14 kills in
game three.
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In game four, the two teams battled to a 15-15 tie, with neither team taking more than a two-point advantage throughout the entire game. BYU grabbed the 16-15 lead on a Matt Olsen solo block and would serve through six game-point opportunities before Wall and Olsen teamed to block a USC attack to tie the match at 2-2.
In the final game of the match, USC jumped out to a 5-2 lead before the Cougars went on an 8-1 run. A balanced Cougar offensive attack from that point proved to be the difference as five different Cougars added kills to take the 14-11 lead. In front of 5,285 anxious fans in the Smith Fieldhouse, Wilson chalked up his 20th kill of the match as the crowd stormed the court and the Cougars battled back in their fifth five-game match of the season.
The win marks BYU's fourth straight over the Trojans, as the Cougars improve their all-time series record to 9-6 against USC.
USC next plays a pair of non-conference matches, at Cal Baptist on Wednesday (Feb.23) and then hosting UC Santa Cruz on Friday (Feb. 25), both starting at 7 p.m.
