No. 5 USC Men’s Volleyball Faces Concordia in Quarterfinals of MPSF Tournament at UCLA

Men’s Volleyball | April 19, 2022

THIS WEEK

This week, the No. 5 USC men’s volleyball team (21-6), coming off a pair of MPSF victories over Grand Canyon, begins its run in the MPSF Tournament. USC will play in the quarterfinal match at the No. 2 seed in the tournament held at Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. The Trojans will take on No. 7 seed Concordia (10-15) on Wednesday (Apr. 20) at 2 p.m. PT. The winner advances to an MPSF semifinal match on Thursday (Apr. 21), with that winner playing in the MPSF Championship match on Saturday (April 23) at 6 p.m. PT for an automatic berth into the NCAA tourney. 

FOLLOW THE TROJANS

All of USC’s home matches in the Galen Center are video-streamed live for free on USCTrojans.com, except for matches televised live on Pac-12 Network.  USC’s online announcers are ex-Trojan player and assistant coach Mark Beltran and onetime Northeastern player/Winthrop assistant coach Paul Duchesne.  Fans also can follow USC home matches through Live Stats at USCTrojans.com and all matches via Twitter (@USCmensvolley).

Live streaming and stat links for away matches can be found at USCTrojans.com.

RANKINGS

USC is ranked 5th in the current AVCA Division I-II Top 15 poll, while Concordia is not ranked. 

USC IN CONFERENCE/REGIONAL TOURNEYS 

USC is 29-32 all-time in conference/regional playoffs, dating to 1971, including winning 7 playoff championships. In MPSF tourney play only, USC is 14-17 (the Trojans won the 2009 MPSF tourney).      

STATS OF NOTE

As a team, USC is in the Top 10 nationally in four statistical categories: fourth in kills (13.06 per set, second in MPSF), fifth in assists (12.37 per set, and second in MPSF), fifth in hitting percentage (.340, second in MPSF) and sixth in digs (9.31 per set, first in MPSF). 

OPPONENTS

The Trojans are 11-6 all-time against the Eagles dating back to their first meeting in 2014. USC has played Concordia twice this season and both times were victorious.