March 27, 2002

Box Score

LOS ANGELES - Paul Johnson and Matt Komer each had 12 kills and 4 blocks to lead the No. 1-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team to a 30-24, 30-24, 30-24 win over USC in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest on Wednesday (March 27) in the USC Lyon Center.

The Bruins, who won their ninth match in a row, improved to 23-3 overall and 15-2 in the MPSF. USC dropped its eighth straight match to fall to 5-19 (its slowest start ever) and 2-16 in the MPSF.

Johnson hit a match-high .733, while Komer hit .450 and teammate Chris Pena was at .563 with 11 kills. Komer and Pena each served 3 aces. UCLA outhit Troy, .411 to .214, and had more digs, 25 to 16.

For USC, Brook Billings had 10 kills and a match-best 6 digs, Blake Tippett hit .429 with 8 kills and had a match-high 4 aces and Josh Day had a match-leading 5 blocks.

In the first game, USC led 20-17 but the Bruins scored the next 6 points to gain control. Although the second game was tied at 16-16, the Trojans never held a lead, after closing to 22-21, USC tallied only 3 more points and hit .185 in the game to UCLA's .444. UCLA scored 3 consecutive points after the third game was tied at 12-12 and pulled away from Troy while hitting .344 to USC's .156.

USC next takes to the road for 7 p.m. MPSF matches at UC Santa Barbara on April 3 and at Cal State Northridge on April 6.