LA JOLLA, Calif. - For the fourth time in five matches, opposite hitter Shane Veiga led the UC San Diego men's volleyball team in kills, but it wasn't enough as the Tritons were swept by No. 5 UC Santa Barbara Friday in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action at RIMAC Arena.
Scores went 25-22, 25-18 and 25-21 as UCSD fell to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in MPSF play. The Gauchos upped their season mark to 3-1 and are now 1-0 in the league.
Veiga posted a match-high 12 kills and added seven digs, but the Tritons hit just .194 (36-18-93) while UCSB swung at a blistering .407 (41-8-81) clip. The Gauchos also out-blocked the Tritons 9-3.
"We're a young, inexperienced team, but we're capable of playing really well and winning games," said UCSD head coach Kevin Ring. "It's a matter of having what it takes to battle and come from behind to win close matches. It'll take some time."
Freshman middle blocker Sebastian Brady had a solid offensive night for UC San Diego, flooring seven kills with no errors in nine swings for a .778 attack percentage. Setter Phil Bannan posted 30 assists, three service aces, four digs and a solo block. Libero Chase Frishman had a team-best nine digs, while outside hitter Joel Davidson tallied seven kills, an ace and two digs.
Santa Barbara's Jeff Menzel and Cullen Irons each matched Veiga with 12 kills. Irons had a double-double with 11 digs and led all players with 14.5 points. The Gaucho middles had a huge match as Scott Slaughter swung at .818 with nine kills and no errors in 11 attempts and Dylan Davis hit .583 with eight kills and one error on 12 attacks. Slaughter also had six blocks, which included two solos.
The Gauchos were on fire in the first two sets, hitting .440 in the opener and .552 in the second.
In set one, the Tritons took a 5-4 lead after a Brady ace. A kill from Irons tied the score before Davidson put down a kill to give UCSD a 6-5 lead. The Tritons upped their advantage to 8-5 on back-to-back kills by Veiga and Bannan and held a slim lead for quite some time until UCSB ripped six straight points to take a commanding 20-16 lead. UC San Diego got back within two points at 24-22, but a Menzel kill gave the set to UC Santa Barbara.
The lead never changed hands in the second set as UCSB quickly got out to a 5-1 advantage. The Tritons tied the score four times, the last coming at 12-12. The Gauchos then collected four consecutive points, two of those coming on back-to-back kills by Irons, and they never looked back.
The final set featured eight tie scores, but just two lead changes. Both teams had their lowest attack percentages of the night as UCSD hit .103 and UCSB hit .222. The set stayed tight and the Tritons took their first lead, 17-16, after three straight points on a Veiga kill, a Bannan ace and an attack error by the Gauchos. The teams traded the next two points, but UCSB then picked up three straight points on a kill from Irons, a block by Slaughter and Menzel and a Triton hitting error, putting the Gauchos up 20-18. A later four-point run by UC Santa Barbara put the set, and the match, out of reach for UCSD.
The Tritons were coming off a 3-1 upset win at No. 7 UC Irvine on Wednesday.
"We started the week off really well by setting the tone with our passing and setting against UCI," said Ring. "Tonight, we kept our errors to a minimum, but we weren't able to create much service pressure to force them out of their system."
It's been a solid start to the season for Veiga. The junior entered the year with just 22 career kills. He had 14 kills vs. No. 9 UCLA, 19 against No. 12 Cal State Northridge and 15 vs. Cal Baptist, all match-highs, at UCSB's Gaucho Collegiate Invitational last week.
Veiga and the rest of the Tritons lay low from official competition until Friday, Jan. 21 when top-ranked USC visits RIMAC Arena for a 7 p.m. match. The team will host its annual alumni match on Saturday, Jan. 15 at 2 p.m.
– ucsdtritons.com –
