COLUMBUS, Ohio -
The UC San Diego men's volleyball team lost to 10
th-ranked Ohio State 23-30, 30-27, 25-30, 23-30 on Sunday night. The Buckeyes remain undefeated at 5-0 while the Tritons dropped to 0-3. A trio of Tritons reached double-digits in kills with
Jon Daze leading the way with 18 kills on a .429 hitting percentage.
Russ Hardy added 14 kills and
Brenden Bowe sent down 13 kills. Joe Sexton had 10 digs.
UC San Diego opened game one with a 3-1 lead off kills from Garret Smith and Daze and an ace serve by Chris Sayers. Three Triton errors and an OSU block by Albertson and Robert Klein (So./Fr., Cincinnati, Ohio) gave OSU a 5-3 lead. At 7-5, OSU, Buckeye kills from Stuart Katz (5th/Sr., Port Washington, N.Y.) and Brett Versen (Jr./So., Centerville, Ohio) and two UC-San Diego errors opened up an 11-5 lead. OSU took the lead to 10 at 20-10 and 25-15 before three Buckeye errors and a Hardy ace serve cut the margin to 25-19. OSU held on to the lead, winning the game on a Triton service error at 30-23. Ohio State hit .321 for the game to .000 for UC-San Diego.
Game two saw 12 ties to begin the game, the last coming at 13. Two Buckeye errors gave UC-San Diego a 15-13 margin. At 20-18, Tritons, a Klein kill and a UC-San Diego error tied the game at 20. The squads exchanged points until OSU tied the game at 23 with an Andy Cole (Sr., Glendale, Wis.) kill. Three consecutive OSU errors returned the lead to UC-San Diego at 26-23. A Cole kill cut the margin to 26-24. A kill from Hardy and an ace serve by Daze made it 28-24 Tritons. A Hankey kill and a UC-San Diego error cut the lead to 28-26. Hardy's kill set game point at 29-26. An OSU block by Albertson and Daniel Mathews (So., Shorewood, Wis.) stopped the point at 29-27. The Triton closed out the game with a Brenden Bowe kill to win, 30-27. UC-San Diego hit .379 for the game to .364 for Ohio State.
After seven ties, game three was tied at 14. Ohio State took a 16-14 lead off two Triton errors. UC-San Diego cut the Buckeye lead to one several times, the last at 24-23, but could not take the lead. Hankey's kill set game point at 29-26 and a Triton error ended the game at 30-26, giving OSU a 2-1 lead in the match. The Buckeyes hit .483 for the game to .400 for UC-San Diego.
Tied at two in game four, Triton kills from Hardy and Smith and an ace serve from Daze opened a 5-2 UC-San Diego lead. At 11-8, a triple block by Daze, Brooks Dierdorff and Smith, a solo block by Dierdorff and a Hardy kill expanded the UC-San Diego lead to 14-8. A Triton service error stopped the run (14-9), but a kill from Hardy, a solo block by Kyle Hansen and an OSU error gave UC-San Diego an eight point lead at 17-9. The Buckeyes began a 10-1 run that tied the game at 19. After a Triton error, blocks from Hankey and Albertson and then from Albertson and Mathews and a Cole ace serve cut the lead to 17-13. A Hardy kill (18-13) stopped the run. After two UC-San Diego errors, OSU blocks by Albertson and Sam Stevens (Sr./Jr., Miami, Fla.) and then Albertson and Mathews cut the lead to one at 18-17. A Triton error tied the game at 18 and a Stevens-Albertson block made it 19-18, OSU. Triton kills from Hansen and Daze returned the lead to UC-San Diego at 20-19. The Buckeyes then scored the next six points with three Triton errors and kills from Albertson and Mathews and a Dan Meske (Jr., Willow Springs, Ill.) ace serve to lead 25-20. An OSU error made it 25-21. Kills by Stevens and Daze moved the score to 26-22. A UC-San Diego error made it 27-22. Buckeye blocks by Hankey-Versen and Cole-Versen set match point at 29-22. A Buckeye error made it 29-23. Ohio State closed out the game with a Versen kill, winning the game, 30-23, and taking the match, 3-1. The Buckeyes hit .000 for the game to -.025 for UC-San Diego.
For the match, Ohio State hit .292 to .167 for UC-San Diego. The Tritons had a 56-29 margin in kills while each squad recorded six ace serves. UC-San Diego gave up 23 service errors to 17 for the Buckeyes. Defensively, Ohio State had a 35-29 edge in digs with Triton Joseph Sexton recording a match-high 10 digs. The Buckeyes enjoyed a 15.5 to 6.5 advantage in team blocks. OSU's Albertson recorded a match/career-high 10 assist blocks in the contest. Triton Dierdorff recorded a match-high 49 assists while OSU's Mathews had 42.
UC San Diego is back in action on January 19 when it faces Stanford on the Cardinal campus at 7:00 p.m.
