STOCKTON, Calif. - The 12th ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team was upset Thursday by No. 15 Pacific as the Tritons fell, 3-1, at the Alex G. Spanos Center. The loss snapped a hefty six match win streak against the Tigers that UCSD had accumulated over the past three seasons.
Scores of the match were 25-22, 25-19, 23-25 and 25-21 in favor of Pacific, who hadn't beaten UCSD since Mar. 9, 2007 in Stockton. The Tritons, playing their first road match since Jan. 22, fell to 5-8 overall and 2-5 in the MPSF. The Tigers evened their overall record at 6-6 and hold a 2-4 mark in league play.
The Tritons were held to a .183 (51-28-126) attack percentage, mostly due to the fact that the Tigers put up 17.5 blocks. Sean Daley had 10 total stuffs, while Taylor Hughes added another seven.
On the other side of the net, Pacific swung at .333 (46-15-93) with UCSD blocking the Tigers 7.5 times.
Pacific sided out over 70% of the time in three of four sets, while UCSD was under 60% in all four sets. The Tigers had a 78% sideout percentage in set two.
Carl Eberts and Shane Veiga led UCSD with 12 kills apiece. Veiga hit .346 while Eberts had 10 errors and swung at .061. Veiga also contributed three digs, five blocks and a team high 14.5 points and Eberts dug a team best eight balls. Setter Phil Bannan totaled 39 assists, a pair of service aces and six digs.
Florian Gornik led all players with 14 kills, while Hughes had 13 kills, seven digs and a match high 17 points. Javier Caceres finished with 10 digs.
UCSD gave up 22 points on service errors. Pacific wasn't great from the line either as it committed 16 errors of its own.
There were 29 ties scores in the match, including 11 in the opening set and 10 in the third frame.
UCSD plays at No. 4 Stanford on Friday, Feb. 11 at Maples Pavilion (7 p.m.).
- ucsdtritons.com -
