Jan. 14, 2006
Los Angeles, Calif. - No. 12 USC men's volleyball team beat No. 15 Stanford 28-30, 30-27, 34-32, 30-21 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match tonight in USC's Lyon Center.
Stanford fell to 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the MPSF. USC improved to 3-2 overall and opened MPSF play at 2-0 for the first time since 2001.
Stanford senior Ben Reddy had a match-leading 22 kills, while senior Chris Ahlfeldt had 13 kills and 7 blocks.
In a tightly-contested first game, Stanford scored the last 2 points to win on an Ahlfeldt kill and a Trojan hitting error. USC opened up a 20-10 lead in the second game, but Stanford pulled to within 27-26 before Troy prevailed. The Trojans fought back from 11-5 and 22-18 deficits in the third game to go up 23-22 and then the rest of that game see-sawed back and forth before a Grangeiro ace won it. In the fourth game, USC steadily built up a 10-point lead at 23-13 and easily finished out the match.
USC outhit Stanford, .381 to .301, but the Cardinal had more blocks (11.5 to 8) and aces 8 to 5.
Stanford next hosts UC San Diego on Thursday, January 19 at 7:00PM in Burnham Pavilion.