Penn State vs. USC tonight in NCAA Men's Volleyball semifinals

Edgardo Goas and Max Holt

The fifth-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team will face fourth-ranked and third-seed USC (20-10) tonight at Smith Fieldhouse on the campus of BYU in Provo, Utah. You can catch the defending national champion Nittany Lions (27-3) at 9 p.m. EDT on ESPN2 and ESPNU. The second national semifinal features #1 UC Irvine (25-5) against #10 Ohio State (16-10).

PSU and USC will be meeting for the second time this season. They met in the season's opening match at the Outrigger Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii on Jan. 8. Penn State won in five sets (27-30, 30-23, 30-19, 29-31, 15-12). USC faltered down the stretch, losing four of their last five regular-season matches before winning the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament with victories over #4 Stanford, #1 UC Irvine, and #2 Pepperdine.

The Nittany Lions are 6-15 all-time against the Trojans, including a 1-2 mark in the NCAA tournament, with the last meeting a five-game USC win (12-15, 15-9, 15-5, 5-15, 9-15) in the 1987 semifinals.

Penn State is led by five All Americans...

Senior middle hitter Max Holt (Cincinnati, Ohio), junior middle hitter Max Lipsitz (Williamsville, N.Y.), and junior outside hitter Will Price (Gaithersburg, Md.) all earned First Team American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America honors while sophomore libero Dennis Del Valle (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico) and redshirt freshman setter Edgardo Goas (San Juan, Puerto Rico) both earned Second Team AVCA All-America accolades.

Penn State's five selections rank first in the country and also equals last year's total for the Nittany Lions, which is the most in program history since 1982. It is the second straight First Team award for Holt while Lipsitz picks up his first First Team distinction and his second career honor as he was a Second Team nod last year. Del Valle earns his second straight Second Team accolade and it is the first career award for both Price and Goas. The five honors bring Penn State's total number of All-Americans to 73 since 1971.

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