Volleyball : USC Gains Some Revenge, Routs UCLA

The USC men’s volleyball team gained a measure of revenge for a year of losses to UCLA as it beat the Bruins in three straight games, 15-12, 15-7, 15-3, to win the Reebok volleyball tournament Saturday night in front of 4,468 in Pauley Pavilion.

The top-ranked Trojans breezed past the fifth-ranked Bruins, the same school they were unable to beat in seven tries last season, including the finals of the national championships.

USC has been the runner-up in the championship finals three years in a row.

The Trojans (18-1) used accurate hitting to beat the Bruins (18-3); USC hit 41% to UCLA’s 28%.

USC overwhelmed UCLA in the final game. Jen-Kai Liu served for six consecutive points to bring the Trojans from 8-0 to 14-0 before the Bruins got a side out.

UCLA saved itself from a shutout by getting three straight points late in the game.

Both teams were without a key player. UCLA All-American Don Dendinger was out with an ankle injury and USC’s regular setter Mike Lauterman had a back injury.

Lauterman was replaced with freshman Dan Greenbaum, who USC Coach Bob Yoder thought played well.

“Greenbaum set a great game tonight,” Yoder said. “We didn’t give up anything with him in.”

USC’s Tom Duke led all attackers with 24 kills.

In the consolation game, No. 4 Pepperdine upset No. 2 Penn State, 15-10, 15-17, 15-9.

Named to the all-tournament team were Randy Bergstedt of Pepperdine, Javier Gaspar of Penn State, Matt Sonnichsen and J.B. Saunders of UCLA and Duke and Liu of USC. Liu was named the tournament’s most valuable player.