LOS ANGELES – The No. 3 Penn State men's volleyball team dropped its first match of the season in a 3-1 loss (22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 16-25) to No. 12 USC in its first of two matches at the B1G/Pac-12 Challenge Friday evening at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion.
Cal Fisher led the Nittany Lions with 20 kills and 10 digs for his second career double-double. Brett Wildman chipped in 10 kills and also had six digs.
USC's Simon Gallas had a special night for the Trojans with 30 kills on 48 swings to power USC to the victory.
Penn State hit under .300 in the match for the first time this season at .278 while USC eclipsed .400 as a team at .402 with 57 kills on 112 attempts.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first set was very close throughout as neither team had a lead larger than two points throughout until the very end of the game. Unfortunately for Penn State, the final run of the set was a three-point run for the Trojans that allowed them to hand Penn State its first set loss of the season, 25-22.
Penn State struggled on its attack with a .208 team hitting percentage in the first game.
In set two, Penn State started hot in the frame with a three-point edge at various points, the latest being 10-7 after a Fisher kill. The Trojans responded right away with three points to tie the score right back up 10-10, and the battle remained within the tight margin from there.
The score was tied 23-23 late in the second, but a bad set by the Nittany Lions and a kill by Gallas clinched the second game for the Trojans to put PSU in the 2-0 hole.
Penn State's offense came out firing in the third set to complete the game hitting .519 with only one hitting error. A Michal Kowal service run in the middle of the set allowed Penn State to scamper ahead 14-11.
The Trojans slowly closed the margin to as low as one, but the Nittany Lions held strong to never give up the lead in the frame. Fisher picked up Penn State's final two points of the set to win the frame 25-23 and cut USC's lead to 2-1 in the match.
Penn State's comeback attempt to force the match to a fifth set was denied by USC in the fourth frame as the Trojans used a big scoring run in the middle of the frame to pull away. PSU trailed 10-9 at one point, only to see USC win 10 of the next 12 points to put the match out of reach.
USC closed set four with a 25-16 win to win 3-1.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions complete their B1G/Pac-12 Challenge a matchup against No. 2 UCLA Saturday evening at 10:30 p.m. ET.
