LA JOLLA, Calif. ?The 15th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team had all it could handle on Saturday night in a 30-20, 30-23, 30-21 loss to No. 4 Cal State Northridge on Saturday night at the Matadome. The Matadors controlled the match by hitting at a .446 clip while the Tritons managed a .086 hitting percentage. UCSD was led by Joel Davidson with eight kills on .400 hitting while no other Triton had more than five kills on the night. With the loss, the Tritons drop to 4-6, 2-5 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Matadors improve to 8-2, 5-2 MPSF.
Adrian Guthals and Jason Spangler had five kills apiece for UCSD. Guthals added three blocks and Spangler was perfect in 23 receptions. Eric Leserman had six digs and Calvin Ross had four kills on .364 hitting.
In the first set, the Matadors scored nine of the first 12 points and the Tritons never got closer than 13-10. CSUN went on a 6-1 run to put the set out of reach, winning the set 30-20.
The Tritons were most competitive in the second set, leading 13-10 after a Ross kill. UCSD went ahead 17-15 after a Guthals kill. CSUN scored five straight points, helped by a block and four UCSD errors. With the Tritons trailing 22-20, CSUN scored consecutive points for the four-point lead. The Tritons came back within 26-23 but it was too late as the Matadors scored the final four points of the set.
After the Tritons got the first point of the third set, it was all Matadors. CSUN went ahead 17-9 and cruised to the 30-21 win.
UCSD is back in action next week when it heads to Springfield, MA for the Hall of Fame Classic on Feb. 13-14.
