SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - UC San Diego lost to No. 9 UC Santa Barbara, 3-0, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men's volleyball contest at Rob Gym on Friday night. Set scores were 25-23, 25-17 and 25-20.
The Tritons (2-24, 0-20 MPSF) out-blocked UCSB (15-9, 11-9 MPSF), 11.5-5.0, reaching double figures in total team blocks for the third time this season, all in their last eight matches, but it wasn't enough against the host Gauchos, who clinched an MPSF Tournament berth on the evening. UCSD won the blocking battle over its opponent for the fifth time in 2015.
The opening set was the closest, featuring 12 tie scores and four lead changes. After trailing by as many as three in the early going at 5-2, UCSD held its first advantage at 11-10 through a combination block by Shayne Beamer and Tanner Syftestad, and then a second straight Gaucho hitting error. The Tritons took their largest lead of the night at 17-14 at the end of a 3-0 run that included a kill and a solo block by freshman outside hitter Alec Flowers, around a triple block by Beamer, Flowers and setter Milosh Stojcic. That forced the first timeout of the night, by UCSB. What followed, however, was a 4-0 stretch for the home side to reclaim an 18-17 edge.
A kill by Flowers and a combo stuff by Beamer and Flowers put the Tritons back on top one final time for the frame at 19-18, but three successive Gaucho points, all on attack errors, put them up for good at 21-19 as UCSD used its second timeout.
The Tritons tallied the first point of the second set, before UC Santa Barbara notched the next four and held onto the lead for the remainder. The third stanza was all Gauchos, as they manufactured a 7-1 bulge for themselves and didn't look back.
Flowers and Syftestad had six kills each to guide the Tritons. Beamer paced all players with five total blocks. Mathew Schnitzer collected three kills without an error, the lone service ace for UCSD, and four block assists. Stojcic had 22 assists, four digs and three blocks, while Tyler Bird got to a team-high eight digs.
"I thought we did a great job blocking," said UCSD head coach Kevin Ring. "We had 11.5 team blocks in the three sets. We kept a lot of pressure on them, and were able to get some stuff blocks on the left side, the right side, a few in the middle. For us to be more competitive in the match, we just needed a little more firepower with our offense. We needed to come up with a little bit better of a kill percentage, and a little bit better of a sideout percentage. I like how we battled. UC Santa Barbara is a very strong team, and they're really getting themselves geared up for playoffs. It was a good match and a good fight by us tonight. We'll get prepared for UCLA tomorrow."
Kevin Donohue finished with a match-high 12 kills for UCSB. Setter Jonah Seif completed a double-double of 29 assists and 16 digs, to go along with four of the Gauchos' six aces, a kill on his lone attack, and three blocks.
UCSD is at No. 12 UCLA on Saturday night, April 11. First serve inside Pauley Pavilion is set for 7 p.m. The Bruins (11-13, 7-13 MPSF) are locked in a fierce three-way battle with Stanford (7-12 MPSF) and CSUN (7-13 MPSF) for the eighth and final spot in the 2015 MPSF Tournament.
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