Ask the UCSD men’s volleyball head coach and he’ll say it wasn’t an upset. But for a team that wasn’t expected to make much noise in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, the Tritons’ 31-29, 30-24, 26-30, 30-27 win at No. 14 University of Southern California on Jan. 19 certainly could be dubbed as one – and possibly UCSD’s biggest upset since the water polo team shocked UCLA.

“”I don’t think of it as Division I vs. Division II or scholarship program vs. nonscholarship program,”” head coach Kevin Ring said. “”When we get into the gym, we practice just as hard as any other team, giving us an opportunity in every game we play.””

But what the Tritons face in the MPSF is eight of the top 10 teams in the nation, including top-ranked UC Irvine.

“”We don’t like to make excuses and have it be okay to lose to these teams, but we also understand how hard we have to work to be competitive,”” senior setter Brooks Dierdorff said.

With the win, the men improved to 1-2 in the difficult MPSF and overall.

The freshmen tandem of outside hitters Will Ehrman and Jason Spangler and middle blocker Adrian Guthals led the way for UCSD against USC, tallying a combined 47 kills.

The teams battled back and forth the entire first game, until UCSD edged out the victory in an exciting finish.

“”We established a lead at the end, 29-27, with the serve,”” Ring said. “”USC got the sideout and a lucky break on its next serve when the ball hit the net and barely rolled over. It’s easy for the guys to lose composure when something that unlucky happens, but we kept it together and put it away.””

The Tritons carried the momentum into the second game, establishing a dominant 15-5 advantage on a block by Ehrman and Guthals. USC cut the lead to four but it wasn’t enough, as UCSD rolled to a 30-24 game-two win.

UCSD sustained the pressure into game three by taking an early lead. The Trojans then tied the game at 20-20 and scored six of the final eight points to take game three 30-26.

After the third-game loss, Ring must have inspired the Tritons during the intermission, as the men jumped out to an early 10-4 edge in game four.

“”I just stressed blocking and defense,”” Ring said. “”They just needed to stay in the moment and keep their composure and take it one point at a time.””

The UCSD freshmen core took the advice to heart after the Trojans tied it at 13-13.

Guthals and Ehrman recorded the next three kills, giving UCSD a 16-13 lead. USC cut the lead to one, but Ehrman closed the door on the Trojans with his game-winning kill, his 22nd of the night.

“”The win gave us a tremendous amount of confidence for the rest of the season,”” Dierdorff said. “”We know we can compete and beat anyone in our league and the win proved that.””

The victory helped heal the wounds suffered the night before at No. 4 Pepperdine University, where the Tritons fell in four games, 23-30, 30-28, 19-30, 27-30.

“”We really pressed Pepperdine and made them scrap to pull out the match,”” Ring said. “”After the match … we were disappointed with the loss, but upbeat about the performance.””

The performance included the Tritons claiming their first win of the season.

“”It’s a big thing to get that first game because it really puts the team over the mental hump of not winning,”” Dierdorff said.

UCSD came out strong in game one against the Waves, gaining an early 7-3 advantage. Pepperdine slowly crawled back into the game, tying it 12-12 before a block by sophomore middle blocker Tim Dietrich gave the Tritons a 14-12 lead. The Waves then went on a 6-1 run and closed out game one with three straight points.

The Tritons fought back from a four-point deficit, tying the score at 19, 20, 21 and 22 in game two. Pepperdine took a slight advantage, 25-22, but once again it was the Triton freshmen coming to the rescue. Spangler recorded two big kills that gave Guthals the opportunity to send down an overpass for the game-two win.

Pepperdine rebounded and showed why it owns a No. 4 ranking, taking games three and four. In game three, UCSD had 11 hitting errors against only seven kills, making things easy for the Waves, who cruised to a 30-19 win. Game four was closer, but the Triton comeback was thwarted by Pepperdine’s 30-27 victory.

“”Playing a top team like that enables us to see where we are against one of the top teams in the country,”” Dierdorff said. “”They expose our weaknesses and we then know what to fix.””

The Tritons are back in action Jan. 23 against Hope International University at RIMAC Arena at 7 p.m.