Men's volleyball

USC defeats top teams at UCSB

By Ron Ognar
Assistant Sports Editor

With impressive wins over powerhouses Stanford and BYU, the USC men's volleyball team finished seventh out of 16 teams at the UC Santa Barbara Invitational, played Friday and Saturday.
Host UCSB picked up the overall crown after defeating Sacramento State in the championship match.
Although results from this tournament will have no influence on USC's goal of making the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs, the Trojans did prove they could compete with some of the top teams in their conference.
The Trojans defeated Stanford, 2-1, in the seventh place match.
Last season, the Cardinal won the Pacific Division of the MPSF, and is once again touted as one of conference's top teams.
USC defeated another top team in BYU (17-15, 16-14) on Saturday. BYU finished in second place in the Mountain Division of the MPSF last year.
The Trojans also picked up victories over Sacramento State (15-5, 15-6) and Washington State (15-13, 9-15, 15-5).
USC faced off with Pepperdine as well during the weekend, but results were not available at press time.
The seventh-place finish marks a small improvement for the Trojans, who finished in ninth place at this same tournament the past two seasons.
Next up for USC is a game at Cal State San Bernardino on Wednesday. Last season, USC defeated San Bernardino (15-12, 15-7) during the UC Santa Barbara Invitational.