LOS ANGELES — The No. 6 BYU men’s volleyball team defeated No. 13 USC 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-13) on Friday evening in the Galen Center, with three Cougars earning double-digit kills.
Senior Kupono Browne had a match-high 17 kills on a .520 hitting percentage, including a match-high six blocks. Juniors Luke Benson and Miks Ramanis each finished with 12 kills as well to help lead the Cougars to victory. Ramanis and middle blocker Gavin Julien each finished with four total blocks while libero Jackson Fife tied his career-high with 12 digs to aid BYU’s defense.
BYU hit .374 as a team and held the Trojans to a .165 team clip, USC’s second-lowest hitting percentage of the season. The Cougars finsished with 52 kills, setting a new season-high for the team in four sets.
With the win over the Trojans, BYU is guaranteed no worse than the three seed in the MPSF Tournament which will take place from April 17-20 at USC.
Set One
Kills from Teon Taylor, Benson and Ramanis gave BYU an early 3-1 lead. USC then fought its way back to gain its first lead of the night at 6-5 after a BYU attack error. Once USC held a 7-5 lead after going on a 3-0 run, the Cougars would struggle to garner another lead. The Trojans got ahead by as many as four points at 17-13 after another 3-0 run, including two BYU attack errors.
BYU went on a 3-0 run of its own later in the set to cut its deficit down by one, trailing 17-16 and forcing a USC timeout. The Cougars would trail by one point again at 21-20, with Benson recording his fifth kill of the match. USC garnered a three-point lead at 23-20 after back-to-back kills, causing a BYU timeout. The Trojans would go on to win the first set 25-22 after a kill by Kyle Paulson, his third of the night.
USC outhit the Cougars in set one, with a team hitting percentage of .375 compared to BYU’s .208. The Trojans also accumulated six blocks, holding BYU to three.
Set Two
The second set opened at an even pace as it saw nine ties until the Cougars went on a 4-0 run to gain a three-point lead at 12-9, featuring two kills by Benson, forcing a USC timeout. Two more kills from Browne gave BYU a 16-14 advantage, taking his kill count to five.
After back-to-back hitting errors from USC, the Trojans called a timeout when falling behind two at 20-18. The Cougars immediately followed the timeout with a block from Teon Taylor, and would later call their own timeout at 21-20 when leading by one. A 3-0 run from the Cougars gave them a set point at…