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March 5, 2010
WATCH USC v UCSB Post Game.(5:00)
Murphy Troy had 24 kills to lead the No. 7-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 26-30, 35-33, 30-24, 31-29 win over No. 10 UC Santa Barbara in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday (March 5) at USC's Galen Center.
USC improved to 9-6 overall and 7-5 in the MPSF, while UCSB fell to 10-9 overall and 7-6 in the MPSF.
Hunter Current, Steven Shandrick and Tony Ciarelli each added 12 kills for the Trojans. Shandrick, who started for just the third time this season, hit .667 (with no errors on 18 swings) and had 5 blocks, while Current hit at a .524 clip and had 4 blocks and 3 aces. Ciarelli had 10 digs and 5 blocks. Teammate Andrew Pizula got 16 digs and Maddison McKibbin added 12 digs.
For UCSB, Jeff Menzel had 17 kills, 10 digs and 2 aces, Scott Slaughter hit .522 with 14 kills and 6 blocks, Cullen Irons had 11 kills and 8 digs and Andy McGuire had 11 digs.
The Trojans hit .277 to UCSB's .236. Both teams had 10.0 blocks and 7 aces. USC's 49 digs were 2 more than the Gauchos collected.
In the opening set, a pair of consecutive kills by Menzel broke a 23-23 tie and propelled UCSB to a lead it didn't relinquish while USC hit just .023. Consecutive Ciarelli aces ended a tight second set as the Trojans upped their hitting to .326, with Troy getting 12 kills himself in the set. The teams served 6 aces between them in the second set. USC broke open a third set that was tied at 20-20 by scoring 5 of the next 6 points and hit .382 overall. UCSB rallied back from a 25-20 deficit in the fourth set and caught USC at 27-27, but a Gaucho serving error followed by a hitting error gave the Trojans the match.
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USC next hosts No. 8 Hawaii in back-to-back MPSF matches in the Galen Center on Monday and Tuesday (March 8 and 9). Both matches start at 7 p.m.
