Patch-Less BYU Team Still Too Much for USC in 3-0 Sweep

  0 Braden Keith | February 11th, 2017 | College - Men's Indoor, MPSF, News

Match Stats

  • #3 BYU def. USC 3-0 (27-25, 25-17, 25-16)
  • BYU moves to 10-2 (5-1 MPSF); USC falls to 3-9 (2-7 MPSF)
  • Galen Center, Los Angeles, California
  • Attendance: 700
  • Match Stats

With both teams down a significant contributor, the 3rd-ranked BYU Cougars rolled to a 3-0 victory over USC on Friday evening in Los Angeles. BYU played without leading scorer Ben Patch, and USC was without Gianluco Grasso, who joined the team mid-season from Brazil.

While the Cougars’ offense didn’t miss a beat without Patch (they hit .421 in the 1st set, and .352 overall), it did take their defense a frame to settle in without their leading digger on the season. They let USC hit .333 in the first set, before holding them to just .097 and .000 percentages in the last two.

BYU’s Jake Langlois had 12 kills on .333 hitting on the day, which is right around his season average, but it was opposite Tim Dobbert who stepped up to add 11. Dobbert has only had more than 3 kills on one other occasion this season – when he put up 14 against McKendree in January, a game that BYU also played without Patch.

Prince Jarman added in 5 block assists for the Cougas, and libero Erik Sikes had 12 digs and 17 perfect service receipts on the day.

USC’s leading scorer was Lucas Yoder, who had 15 kills (5 errors, 34 attacks). The Trojans were out-blocked 9-4 and out-dug 36-27 across 3 sets.

Videos

Courtesy USC Athletics:

Press Releases

Courtesy BYU Athletics:

LOS ANGELES – Tim Dobbert and Jake Langlois helped No. 3 BYU men’s volleyball beat USC in three sets (27-25, 25-17, 25-16) Friday night at the Galen Center.

“I’m happy for the guys and their performance as a team tonight,” BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “Tim did a great job tonight, and Jake was aggressive in all areas. It was good to get some reps for the others as well, and they did a good job in that role.”

Langlois led the Cougars with 12 kills while adding four digs. Dobbert had 11 kills hitting on a .500 clip, six digs and four blocks. Leo Durkin set the offense with 33 assists and Price Jarman added a team-high five blocks. Erik Sikes had a season-high 12 digs in the win.

USC (3-9, 2-7 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) got off to a quick 8-3 lead in the first set, hitting at a .700 clip before BYU (10-2, 5-1 MPSF) took its first timeout. Kills from Langlois and Brenden Sander kept the Cougars in the set, trailing 12-8. A kill and block from Joseph Grosh then helped put BYU within just one, down 16-15. A 4-1 Cougar run eventually pushed BYU ahead 19-18, forcing a Trojan timeout. With the Cougars up 22-20, USC scored three-straight points to take a 23-22 advantage. Each side fought off set points before a kill from Sander ended the close set for BYU 27-25.

A Sander kill kept the second set close, tied 4-4 early on. A 5-0 Cougar run, capped off by a Langlois ace and kill, followed to give BYU a 12-8 advantage. A Jarman and Kiril Meretev block extended the Cougar lead to five, 16-11. BYU cruised from there as Dobbert collected the last two points of the set to give the Cougars a 25-17 set two win.

BYU jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third set following a Dobbert and Jarman block. The Trojans countered with a 3-1 rally to get back within two, down 6-4. The teams remained close from there until a Grosh ace and Dobbert kill extended the Cougars’ advantage to four, 14-10, forcing a USC timeout. Five-consecutive points brought BYU ahead 21-12, and the Cougars ran away with the set and match, winning 25-16 off a Trojan service error.

BYU returns home to the Smith Fieldhouse next week facing off against UC San Diego beginning Friday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. MST. More details can be found on the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page.

Courtesy USC Athletics:

Jake Langlois had 12 kills and Tim Dobbert added 11 kills while hitting .500 to help the No. 3-ranked BYU men’s volleyball team sweep unranked USC, 27-25, 25-17, 25-16, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday (Feb. 10) at USC’s Galen Center.

BYU improved to 10-2 overall and 5-1 in the MPSF. The Trojans fell to 3-9 overall and 2-7 in MPSF play.

Both teams were without a key player. The Trojans were missing Gianluca Grasso of Brazil, who joined USC 3 weeks ago from a local junior college but was sidelined earlier this week after spraining his ankle in practice. The Cougars were missing kill leader Ben Patch, who was held out with an undisclosed injury.

Lucas Yoder led USC with a match-high 15 kills, while teammates Matt Douglas had 10 digs and Ryan Moss had 7 kills while hitting .417.

Erik Sikes had a match-leading 12 digs for BYU, while teammate Price Jarman had a match-best 5 blocks.

BYU hit .352 in the match to USC’s .168. The Cougars also had more blocks (9.0 to 4.0), digs (36 to 27) and aces (4 to 1).

USC got off to an 11-5 start in the first set before BYU slowly climbed back and took the lead by using a 3-0 run to go up 20-18, but the Trojans then used their own 3-0 run to forge a 23-22 lead before the Cougars regained control and scored the final 3 points to take the set while hitting .421. BYU scored 5 consecutive points to build a 12-8 lead in the second set and steadily pulled away while hitting at a .385 clip and getting 15 digs. BYU scored 5 of the third set’s first 6 points and never surrendered the lead.

USC next hosts a pair of MPSF matches in the Galen Center, first facing No. 8 Stanford on Thursday (Feb. 18) at 6 p.m. PT in a contest that will be shown live on Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Los Angeles and Pac-12 Bay Area, and then welcoming No. 9 Pepperdine on Saturday (Feb. 18) at 7 p.m. PT.

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of VolleyMob.com. Braden's first foray into sports journalism came in 2010, when he launched a swimming website called The Swimmers' Circle. Two years later, he joined SwimSwam.com as a co-founder. Long huge fans of volleyball, when Braden and the SwimSwam partners sought an opportunity to …

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