USC beats BYU, gets a win nearly 30 years in the making

In an all-too-familiar way, No. 6 BYU lost to No. 5 USC in five sets Friday night at home.

The Trojans snapped the Cougars’ six-match win streak and earned their first win in the Smith Fieldhouse since 1996.

Friday’s match was reminiscent of the last time a top-five opponent visited Provo, when No. 4 Hawaii came from behind in the final set to upend the Cougars in agonizing fashion on Jan. 31.

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Friday, USC delivered BYU a similar gut punch. The Trojans won by set scores of 23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 21-25, 23-21.

“(It was) brutal, exciting. (I) wish the ball would have fallen the other way a few times down the stretch, but it didn’t,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “... Throughout the night I thought we gave away too many just easy, easy opportunities … and they capitalized and they were better.”

USC proved better the last time the two sides met a season ago in the MPSF tournament, when the Trojans topped the Cougars in five sets to end BYU’s season.

Friday’s loss was almost as demoralizing, though things started on a good note for BYU Friday. The Cougars eked out a win in the first set, overcoming a slow start and gaining momentum thanks to strong serving from senior outside hitter Keoni Thiim midway through.

Thiim led the Cougars to four consecutive points and their first lead, and once ahead, the Provo school never trailed again in the first, staying in control to take the set advantage.

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After giving up the first point of the second set, USC scored four straight and kept the lead the rest of the way, tying the match at 1-1. The Trojans coupled their 4-0 run with a 3-0 run moments later, giving them a 9-5 advantage.

USC then responded anytime BYU threatened to make things close, keeping the Cougars at bay and protecting its lead.

The Trojans got off to another fast start in the third set, scoring five of the first six points, but BYU cut into that deficit immediately and knotted the score up at 9-9.

The two teams wound up being tied on 11 different occasions in the set before USC scored the final three points to earn the pivotal victory.

“In a few crucial moments we shied away from having to really buckle down and compete at a high level,” Olmstead said of the third set. “We didn’t have it in those moments.”

Down early in the fourth set and on its way to losing the match, BYU found something down the stretch of the set to force a decisive fifth, capping the set with an 8-3 run.

The Cougars then carried that momentum into the beginning stages of the final set before collapsing.

For the first time on the evening, BYU was the team with the fast start to a set, going ahead 6-1, but a disastrous ending again did the Cougars in.

“In a few crucial moments we shied away from having to really buckle down and compete at a high level. We didn’t have it in those moments.”

—  BYU coach Shawn Olmstead

The Cougars couldn’t hang on in the shortened fifth, allowing the Trojans to tie the set at eight before falling in a heartbreaker that made its way into the 20s.

Olmstead could not believe he was reliving the same nightmare over again as he saw against Hawaii.

“(We had) too many easy, easy touches that we just didn’t capitalize on and it bit us in the butt,” he said. “(We lost) a massive lead in set five. You can’t do that. … There we are again.”

BYU hopes the déjà vu is over. Following its other five-set thrillers that ended in losses this season — to Hawaii and on the road to No. 2 UC Irvine — the second go-arounds only turned out worse for the Cougars.

A lot remains on the line when USC and BYU meet again Saturday night, as the teams were both atop the MPSF standings at 2-0 entering Friday’s meeting.

The match will begin at 7 p.m.