If the BYU and USC men’s volleyball teams are playing, everyone better settle in for an exciting marathon of a match.

Just 11 days after the Cougars closed the regular season with a tough five-set loss to the Trojans in Los Angeles, BYU found itself in exactly the same position Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the Mountain-Pacific Sports Federation tournament.

The Cougars were the No. 3-seed and thus technically the home team, but the tournament is taking place at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, the home of No. 6-seeded USC.

It was another dramatic battle that lived up to the billing, once again taking five sets to determine which side would win.

Unfortunately for BYU, history repeated itself as the Trojans surged in front in the final frame to secure the 3-2 victory (30-32, 29-27, 25-23, 18-25, 15-12) and end the season for the Cougars.

BYU was led by 25 kills from Luke Benson, while Miks Ramanis had 19 and Kupono Browne added 14, while USC star Jack Deuchar led all players with 30 kills.

In a match with so many tight sets, it easily could’ve gone either direction.

In the first set, for example, the Trojans had the first chance to win the frame when they led 24-23 — only to have the Cougars get a couple of point to go in front and get a set point of their own.

The two teams would battle back and forth with BYU having five more set points and USC getting another before the Cougars finally secured the 32-30 win on back-to-back kills from Ramanis.

The second set, however, would end up the other direction.

It was BYU who led 24-23, only to see the Trojans move in front. The Cougars had to stop a couple of USC opportunities to win before getting one when a Trojan attack error put BYU up 27-26.

USC roared back, though, with two kills and a Cougar error to level the match with the 29-27 win.

The next two sets were more traditional, with the Trojans getting the 25-23 win in Set No. 3, while BYU stayed alive with the most dominating showing of the night in a 25-18 win in Set No. 4.

That set the stage for the excitement of the winner-take-all fifth set and midway through it appeared it would again go down to the wire.

The score was knotted at 7-7 when USC got the sequence in needed to build a three-point lead. While not an overwhelming deficit, BYU couldn’t get the plays it needed to dig out of the hole and the Trojans got the win.

USC moves on to face top-seeded UCLA in the MPSF semifinals on Thursday, while the Cougars wrap up the 2024 campaign and start looking ahead to next season.

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