No. 14 Cardinals Fall to No. 13 USC Despite Monster Match by Ndavazocheva

Friday, January 19

Austin Texas

2:30 pm

Ball State University

7-3,0-0MIVA

University of Southern California

5-0,0-0MPSF

Ball St.

Southern California

Photo by: Claire Witte / Ball State Athletics

No. 14 Cardinals Fall to No. 13 USC Despite Monster Match by Ndavazocheva

January 19, 2024 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

AUSTIN, Texas – Tinaishe Ndavazocheva had match highs of 23 kills and six serving aces Friday afternoon while 14th-ranked Ball State fell 3-1 to No. 13 USC in the first round of the First Point Volleyball Foundation Collegiate Challenge. The star-studded, six-team event at the Austin Convention Center also includes top-ranked UCLA, No. 4 Ohio State, No. 7 Penn State and No. 8 Stanford.

Ball State won the opening set, 25-21, before falling 25-23, 25-19 and 25-21. Ball State out-hit the Trojans .368 to .148 in the first set, but USC powered hitting percentages of .300 or better the rest of the match.

Ndavazocheva, a 6-6 junior hitter from Zimbabwe, paced the Cardinals while playing his first match of the season. He had eight errors out of a whopping 46 attempts for a .326 hitting percentage, while adding five digs and a pair of blocks. In what was his third career match with 20 or more kills, his six aces were a career high and the most by a Ball State player since 2015.

Patrick Rogers added 11 kills for the Cardinals and freshman setter Lucas Machado managed a career-high 46 assists. Wes Smith led a balanced attack for USC with 13 kills, and Dillon Klein added 11.

The Cardinals (7-3) snapped a four-match win streak while USC (5-0) remained unbeaten in the early season. It was the first meeting between the powerhouse programs since March 15, 2003.

This weekend's matches in Austin begin a string of five straight Ball State matchups against nationally ranked competition. The Cardinals battle Stanford on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. ET, prior to returning to Worthen Arena on Sunday, Jan. 28 against No. 3-ranked Hawaii.

Ball State 25 – 23 – 19 – 21
USC 21 – 25 – 25 – 25

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