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USC Men's Volleyball Upsets No. 7 Stanford
Feb. 5, 2004
LOS ANGELES-Blake Tippett had 20 kills and 10 digs to lead the unranked USC men's volleyball team to a 30-26, 26-30, 30-21, 30-26 upset over No. 7 Stanford in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Thursday (Feb. 5) in USC's North Gym. The win was USC's first in MPSF play (1-5) and just its second overall in 2004 (2-8). Stanford dropped to 5-6 overall and 3-4 in the MPSF. Joao Grangeiro added 15 kills (hitting .400) for the Trojans, while teammates Jeff Bailey and Chris McKniff each had 10 kills. McKniff also had 9 blocks, J.T. Gilmour added 5 blocks and 7 digs, Pedro Leal had 7 kills and 8 digs, and Evan Burden had 9 digs. USC hit a season-high .349, while the Cardinal managed to hit only .173. The Trojans also had more blocks (10.0 to 5.0). For Stanford, Patrick Bomhack posted 17 kills and 2 aces, David Vogel had 13 kills and Kevin Hansen had 10 digs. The first game was tied at 23-23 before USC scored 5 of the next 6 points to build a comfortable edge. USC was within 2 points early in the second game, 11-9, before Stanford tallied the next 5 points and never looked back. With the third game knotted at 10-10, USC scored 8 of the next 10 points to gain control of that game. Then, in the final game, the Trojans scored 6 consecutive points to build an 11-5 lead which it never relinquished.
After the match, the Trojans hustled to make a red-eye flight to the East Coast, where they'll participate in the Penn State Tournament, first meeting the 11th-ranked host Nittany Lions on Friday (Feb. 6) and then No. 13 Lewis on Saturday (Feb. 7).
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