BYU men’s volleyball team beats USC convincingly by 3-1 – Volleyball news
One of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches brought Brigham Young University (BYU) and University of Southern California (USC) teams together on the centre court.
The former proved to be better and clinched success in the four-set match. The No. 1 BYU launched authority on the Trojans of USC and posted 3-1 (25-22, 19-25, 25-17, 25-20). The Cougars displayed valiant effort and demonstrated a stellar performance. The
Smith Fieldhouse sports arena in BYU campus set the field of play and received record number of spectators. The match was witnessed by more than 5,000 fans.
The success against Trojans improved the winning record of Cougars to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). On the other hand, Trojans received the first loss of the season and moved to an overall record of 3-1 and 2-1 MPSF
record.
Cougars were hugely supported by top gun Taylor Sander, who had 23 kills in the match. He recorded a hitting percentage of .419 and really took the score by storm. Robb Stowell and Josue Rivera of BYU were equally active on the net. They contributed 14 and
13 kills, respectively. The visiting team’s Tony Ciarelli notched 18 kills, in the failing effort.
The home team BYU started out with classy serves by Joe Kauliakamoa and tried to put pressure on the rival side. However, USC Trojans competed well and kept hand-in-hand with the BYU. Gradually, the Cougars paced things off with back row attack and Sander
put up heavy strike of volleys. Meanwhile, Stowell and Rivera also joined hands with Sander and led BYU to first-set victory, 25-22.
After dropping the first set with a margin of only three points, USC Trojans put extra effort to level the game score in the second set. They hit back strongly and created the ties of 1-1 and 15-all. Afterwards, they picked up lead and remained remarkably
consistent in the game. The hard work of USC paid off and they managed to overcome BYU, 25-19.
The loss of frame in front of the local audience simply put Cougars in utmost rage. They came up with strong attacks and solid blocks in the third set and once again took lead by winning the set with an 8-point advantage (25-17).
The rhythm and tone was already set for Cougars to win the match. They remained on the same course and closed the match after capturing fourth set (25-20).
The winning coach of Cougars, Chris McGown expressed his emotions after the match and said, “This is the greatest environment to play in and we had a really fun time tonight. We showed some heart when we were down in the fourth and did some nice things to
come back.”
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