Steady USC dumps Rainbows in 4 sets

In a volleyball match of streaks and valleys, USC was steady enough to pull out a 25-17, 15-25, 25-14, 25-22 victory over Hawaii at the Galen Center in Los Angeles on Thursday night.

Tanner Jansen’s 20 kills, including a crossing spike that eluded libero Kolby Kanetake at aloha ball, boosted the Trojans to 8-5 overall and 7-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The Rainbow Warriors fell to 9-5 and 7-4.

The rematch is Saturday at 5 p.m., and will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.

"It’s all about the runs," USC middle Tommy Leonard said. "We tried to limit their runs. When we go on runs, we try to extend them. Even if we get down a point, we just go right back. If we don’t give up runs to them, they can’t stop us."

With middle Taylor Averill serving in the second set, the Warriors scored five consecutive points to increase their lead to 14-6 and never looked back.

But the Trojans dominated the third set.

"We played good, solid volleyball and let it all flow together," Leonard said.

The USC servers were given the yellow light, collectively relying on placements rather than velocity. They committed only four service errors, putting 96 percent of their 89 attempts in play.

"We just don’t need to do a whole lot from the service line," Leonard said, instead relying on a tall and active block and libero Henry Cassiday’s defense.

"Let Henry dig the balls, and we can stop them no matter what they bring," Leonard said of the Punahou alum.

Cassiday conjured 13 digs, but it was setter Micah Christenson, a Kamehameha alumnus, who came up with a match-high 18 saves.

The Trojans also had 13.5 digs, including five in the first set.

Opposite Lucas Yoder contributed 18 kills for USC.

UH’s middles played well Nick West and Averill combined for 11 kills against one error in 23 swings but the starting pins struggled. Opposite Brook Sedore had 14 kills but hit .205. Left-side hitter Siki Zarkovic had 13 kills but hit .200. Jace Olsen’s three kills were overshadowed by seven errors. The three combined for 20 attack errors.

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces). Service Aces — Hawaii 4 (Ramos 2, Averill 2). USC 1 (Yoder).  Service errors — Hawaii 5 (Sedore 3, Averill, Franciskovic). USC 4 (Jansen, Christenson, Leonard, Slaught). Assists — Hawaii 50 (Ramos 33, Franciskovic 9, Kanetake 3, Fey 2, Sedore, Averill, Olsen). USC 57 (Christenson 45, Cassiday 4, Benesh 3, Leonard 2, Jansen, McKibbin, Yoder). T — 1:48. Officials — Tony Chan, Ron Stahl.  A — 550.

Thursday
Southern Cal def. Hawaii 25-17, 15-25, 25-14, 25-22

Friday
UC Santa Barbara at Stanford
UC Irvine at CS Northridge
UC San Diego at Long Beach State

Saturday
Hawaii at Southern Cal, 5 p.m.
Cal Baptist at Pepperdine
UC Santa Barbara at Pacific

Sunday
UCLA at Pacific