The Southern California Trojans are sometimes referred to as the Men of Troy.
It was only fitting that a man named Troy helped defeat the No. 6 Long Beach State 49ers men’s volleyball team in a five-set thriller Wednesday night 29-31, 30-24, 23-30, 30-23, 15-13.
USC outside hitter Murphy Troy had 29 kills and 13 digs to lead the Trojans over the ‘Niners at the Walter Pyramid.
The loss was hard to swallow for the 49ers as they had a 5-1 lead in the final set. Some strange plays took place that included Dean Bittner slipping on a wet spot while attempting a kill and Dustin Watten colliding with teammate Mike Klipsch while going for the ball.
In the end, head coach Alan Knipe felt the team did not finish the game after taking a four-point lead.
“In game five, you get up 5-1, you gotta close out the match,” Knipe said. “We had some real weird things happen but you have to overcome those [plays].”
The match started off well for The Beach as it was able to hold off USC with key contributions from Tommy Pestolesi and Jim Baughman.
In the second set, Long Beach committed 12 errors and hit for a dismal .075 and on the opposite end of the spectrum USC hit at a .387 clip. The Trojans dominated the net, compiling eight blocks in the second frame and a total of 19 blocks for the match.
The third set was business as usual for the ‘Niners as they hit for .333 and only had six errors.
In the fourth set LBSU played similar to the second set and committed 10 errors and hit .077.
Watten finished with 11 digs, Klipsch added 63 assists, while Josh Riley and Bittner tied for a team-high 21 kills.
“In this league you don’t have a lot of time to over celebrate wins and definitely don’t have a lot of time to drag your head about losses,” Knipe added.
LBSU (8-7, 7-5 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), winners of four of its last five games, have now lost two games in a row and hope to rebound against the third-ranked Pepperdine Waves on Friday with first serve expected at 7 p.m.