USC Defeats Northridge in Volleyball

Dave Yoder had a match-high 18 kills and teammate Owen McKibbin added 13 as the USC men’s volleyball team coasted to a 15-1, 15-5, 13-15, 15-5 victory over Cal State Northridge in a Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match Wednesday night at CSUN.

The Trojans (16-6, 7-2 in conference) opened a 13-0 lead in the first game and a 10-0 lead in the second. USC took only 15 minutes in each of the first two games but could not complete the sweep.

In the third game, the Matadors (8-14, 2-7 in conference) scored four straight points to break a 10-10 tie. USC closed to within 14-13, but CSUN’s Jeff McClean blocked a kill attempt to seal the Matador victory in the 37-minute game.

USC scored the first eight points of the fourth game and CSUN never again threatened.

“We’ve just got too many young guys on the court,” CSUN Coach John Price said. “Physically, we can play with USC at this level. But tonight we had too many players with the wrong hit selections and it killed us.”

Said CSUN sophomore Ron Graening: “USC is just a great team. No matter how hard we play, they’ve got so much talent that nine times out of 10 they’re going to beat us.”

Graening led CSUN with 11 kills and sophomore Andrew Greskovics had 10.