Jan. 14, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Joao Grangeiro had 19 kills and teammates Juan Figueroa and C.J. Schellenberg each added 16 kills to lead the No. 12-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 28-30, 30-27, 34-32, 30-21 win over No. 15 Stanford in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Saturday (Jan. 14) in USC's Lyon Center.

USC improved to 3-2 overall and opened MPSF play at 2-0 for the first time since 2001. Stanford fell to 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the MPSF.

Figueroa added a match-best 11 digs, while fellow Trojan Andrew Vernon had 12 kills (hitting .611) and 5 blocks.

For Stanford, Ben Reddy had a match-leading 22 kills, while Chris Ahlfeldt had 13 kills and 7 blocks.

In a tightly-contested first game, Stanford scored the last 2 points to win on an Ahlfeldt kill and a Trojan hitting error. USC opened up a 20-10 lead in the second game, but Stanford pulled to within 27-26 before Troy prevailed. The Trojans fought back from 11-5 and 22-18 deficits in the third game to go up 23-22 and then the rest of that game see-sawed back and forth before a Grangeiro ace won it. In the fourth game, USC steadily built up a 10-point lead at 23-13 and easily finished out the match.

USC outhit Stanford, .381 to .301, but the Cardinal had more blocks (11.5 to 8) and aces 8 to 5.

USC next hosts No. 9 UC Irvine on Wednesday (Jan. 18) at 7 p.m. in the North Gym.