IRVINE, Calif. - UC San Diego led for parts of a close first set before dropping it, 26-24, and suffered a sweep to UC Irvine in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men's volleyball action at the Bren Events Center on Friday night. Scores were 26-24, 25-15 and 25-10.
UCSD fell to 4-16 overall and 0-15 in the MPSF. In snapping a four-match losing skid, UC Irvine, picked to finish second in the MPSF preseason coaches' poll, improved to 5-12 overall and 4-11 in league play.
Sophomore opposite Tanner Syftestad turned in double-figure kills for the Tritons for a second straight match, totaling a team-high 14 alongside UCSD's lone ace. Freshman Ryan Blaich earned a second successive start as well, at setter, and finished with 23 assists and a pair of block assists. Calvin Manchenko collected seven kills and a career-best seven digs.
The first frame had 11 tie scores and three lead changes. UCSD tallied the first two points of the night on kills by Syftestad. Knotted at 9-9 later, the Tritons scored three straight, all on Anteater errors, with a combo block on the last one by Syftestad and Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS). Up 15-12 after two more points, UCSD forced UCI's first timeout. The hosts came out of the break with the next three, however, to level matters once more. Back-to-back points for the 'Eaters made the score 21-21 for the Tritons' first timeout. Another Syftestad kill and UCI hitting error gave the visitors one final advantage at 23-22, but after the 'Eaters' last timeout, two bad attacks by UCSD necessitated its last call for time, down 24-23. Syftestad's ninth kill of the frame tied it for the 11th time at 24-24. A service error and Kyle Russell service ace gave UCI the set.
That broke the Tritons' resolve to a significant degree, as UC Irvine scored the first two points of the second and led the rest of the way, and the first two of the third set before doing the same. The 'Eaters had large runs of 5-0 and 7-0 in the middles of those two games, respectively, for commanding advantages of 14-5 and 21-8.
Russell put down 15 kills for UCI to lead all players, hitting .481 (15-2-27) with a match-high two aces. Dillon Hoffman got to 13 digs, while Dante Chakravorti handled 28 assists. Jason Agopian hit .889 (8-0-9) with four total blocks.
"I was pleased with the start we got off to," said UCSD head coach Kevin Ring. "I thought we were pretty good from the service line. We had a lot of first-ball sideout kills, and sided out well overall. Irvine made a late run, and unfortunately we lost by two. After that, Irvine was able to pick up its game, and our game kind of dropped off. We just never quite found the same rhythm we had in that first set. That's what good teams are going to do. They're going to find their identity, as Irvine did tonight. They got the ball to their hot hitters and executed down the stretch."
The teams wrap up their home-and-home set for 2016 in La Jolla on Saturday night, March 5. First serve inside RIMAC Arena is at 7 p.m.
"We're going the face the same team tomorrow night on a short turnaround," concluded Ring. "We've got a lot to do. I think we can certainly have a much better performance. We're looking forward to playing at home."
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