In the opening VolleyMob Men’s Top 20 Power Rankings, USC came in ranked at 14. They also were slotted 12th by the coaches. The reason they didn’t crack the top 10 after returning four starters plus the libero from a team who finished 2017 ranked 11th though was based on who they lost. What they gained in freshman Sam Lewis may be enough to overcome those departures though.
Outside hitter Lucas Yoder and middle blocker Andy Benesh departed from the team after earning second team and honorable mention AVCA All-America honors respectively. They were the lone national/conference award honorees, meaning no players with national recognition returned.
What they did bring back is plenty of talent who were high level recruits at one point and have the potential to be the next Yoder or Benesh. The question was could someone step up and could they get their strong nine man recruiting class to come on and contribute right away. That question may have been answered in the regular season opener for USC, as Lewis was a force in the middle for the Trojans in a win over #15 Princeton.
There wasn’t question to Lewis’ talent after he came in as a former member of the U.S. Boys Youth’ National Team. He seems to be making a seamless transition from prep to college too, as he logged 11 kills with no errors in yesterday’s match between #14 USC and #15 Princeton. The sum was a .786 hitting percentage for Lewis, who was the story of the night.
In a match that USC won 3-1 with one game going to extras and their other two set wins coming 25-22, that strong play of Lewis sure enough may have been the difference. Moving forward it might be the difference too as the Trojans look to have a special one in the middle for years to come.
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