USC men’s volleyball: Trojans receive at-large bid to NCAA Final Four

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The top-ranked USC men’s volleyball team is going to the NCAA Final Four.

The Trojans (23-3) earned the sole at-large bid Sunday and, as the top-seeded team, will face fourth-seeded UC Santa Barbara (17-14) Thursday at 4 p.m. PDT in a semifinal match at State College, Pa., the site of this year’s NCAA Final Four. That match will be shown live on ESPN2.

It will be a rematch of Saturday night’s match, when the fifth-ranked Gauchos upset USC in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament final at the Galen Center, giving the Gauchos the automatic berth to the Final Four.

The winner of the USC-UC Santa Barbara match will face the winner of Thursday’s 6 p.m. PDT semifinal between No. 10 Penn State (24-6), the second-seeded team, and No. 9 Ohio State (24-6), the third-seeded team.

The championship game will be held on Saturday at 4 p.m. PDT and will air on ESPN2.

This is USC’s 13th overall trip to the Final Four, and the Trojans will be seeking their first NCAA title since 2000. It’s the third time USC enters the NCAA tournament coming off a lost; the Trojans won the NCAA title the first two times that happened, in 1988 and 1990.

-- Baxter Holmes