14th-ranked USC was rolled 3-0 on Friday by 2nd-ranked, MPSF leaders, Long Beach State on the road, and were without their best player Lucas Yoder in the loss.
According to a statement from USC, Yoder missed the game with an abdominal strain – marking the 3rd game this season he’s missed for the Trojans.
Yoder played well in the team’s game on Wednesday, a 3-2 win over Cal State Northridge, where he had 24 kills and hit .395. He turned up lame before Friday’s matchup, though, and was relegated to the bullpen.
Yoder leads the nation with 4.91 kills/set and ranks 2nd only behind BYU’s Ben Patch (who is also injured) in points/set with 5.25 – Patch is averaging 5.26.
With a 5-8 record in the MPSF, USC is currently ranked 9th out of 12 teams. Only 8 teams qualify for the MPSF tournament, so even though USC’s 5 wins are more than Pepperdine and CSUN, they’ve also played more games this season (13 versus 9 and 10, respectively).
They entered Friday’s game with a 3-match winning streak, which had them on pace to qualify for the tournament. They have a two game road trip to Hawaii next week, pivotal games for the Trojans, before a stretch of 5-straight non-conference games. They then have home matchups against MPSF rivals UCLA and UCSB before a home-and-home with Cal Baptist to finish the season.
With only 6 conference games left, the games against Cal-Baptist and UCSB are must-wins, while taking at least 1 from the 3 games against Hawaii and UCLA is probably also needed to lock up their post-season invite.
Long Beach State has already clinched a bid to the tournament, leaving just 7 positions remaining.
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