LONG BEACH, Calif. - UC San Diego could not get its offense on track Saturday and suffered a straight set loss at Long Beach State. Scores of the Big West Conference match at the Walter Pyramid were 25-20, 25-22, and 25-15.

With its second 3-0 loss to LBSU in as many days, UC San Diego, ranked 12th in the nation, falls to 3-9 overall and 3-5 in the Big West. Long Beach, ranked sixth in the country, improves to 5-3 on the season with the same mark in conference matches.

The Tritons managed to put up just an .070 hitting percentage, their lowest of the season. They had 25 kills and 20 errors in 71 attack attempts. Conversely, the Beach hit .307 with 34 kills and just 11 errors in 75 swings. In Friday's match at RIMAC Arena in La Jolla, UC San Diego hit .268 while Long Beach State countered at .420.

In today's contest, LBSU out-blocked UC San Diego 9-4 and held a 7-5 advantage in service aces. The Tritons finished with a slight lead in digs, 21-20.

No players ended up with 10 or more kills. For the Tritons, middle blocker Shane Benetz led with seven and hit .455 (7-2-11). He also add two blocks, one of those solo. Outside hitter Kyle McCauley and opposite Collin Shannon each had five kills, but the pair combined to hit -.086 (10-13-35). Middle Logan Clark and outside Ryan Ka had three kills apiece with Clark hitting .750 (3-0-4). Setter Blake Crisp had 20 assists. He and McCauley accounted for all five of the Tritons' aces - McCauley with three and Crisp with two. Libero Matt Palma, who ranks 13th nationally in digs per set, finished with a match-high eight scoops.

For the Beach, Simon Anderson led all players with nine kills. He hit .563 with no errors in 16 attempts and also added two aces and four blocks. Spencer Olivier and Clarke Godbold each had seven kills. Olivier also picked up six blocks and Godbold had a pair of aces and five digs. Mason Briggs led LBSU defensively with seven digs.

WHAT HEAD COACH KEVIN RING HAD TO SAY
• Tonight's match saw our offense drop off considerably compared to what it was last night.
• I thought last night we did a great job in serve receive that led to a lot of quality swings, first ball sideout swings.
• Tonight, our passing was not quite as strong and our offense took a hit because of that.
• We had a better blocking presence tonight and we were better defensively, so it was kind of a trade off from one night to the next.
• If you're going to beat a team of Long Beach State's caliber, all phases of your game have to be on.
• We had moments tonight when we did some good things, especially in the first two sets. Unfortunately, we gave up big runs and found ourselves down early and had to call early timeouts. We did a lot just to get ourselves back in it and make it competitive, but it wasn't enough in the end.
• In the third set Long Beach State really picked up its game and we weren't able to make a late run.

TRITON TIDBITS
• For the fourth time this season and third time in his last four matches, Kyle McCauley put down three service aces.
• Senior Gabe Avillion made his first appearance of the season and finished with a kill on his lone attack attempt.
• Kyle McCauley has finished with at least 10 kills in 10 of 12 matches.
• UC San Diego was without senior outside hitter Wyatt Harrison for the 11th consecutive match due to injury.

UP NEXT
UC San Diego wraps up its 10-match Big West Conference slate next week against third-ranked UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos come to La Jolla for matches on April 14 and April 15 (5 p.m.). The first will count in the conference standings, the second will be non-conference. The Tritons then travel to Santa Barbara on April 17 (4 p.m.) for what will be the final Big West match of the season for both squads.

THE BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP
The Big West Conference will run its annual tournament April 22-24 at SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu with the University of Hawaii serving as host. All six Big West teams (CSUN, Hawaii, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara) will compete. The top two seeds receive a first round bye and advance directly to the semifinals. Seeds 3 and 6 play in one quarterfinal and seeds 4 and 5 play in the other with the two winners moving on to the semis. The tournament champion earns an automatic berth in the NCAA National Collegiate Championship. In 2019, Hawaii (which hosted that year's Big West tourney as well) defeated Long Beach State in five sets to win the league title. Both teams moved on to the national championship (at Long Beach State) and the Beach topped the Rainbow Warriors, 3-1, in the final to take the national crown. There were no Big West or national championship tournaments in 2020 due to the pandemic.

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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions III and II and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.

Return To Sport… Safely
In order for UC San Diego scholar-athletes to be permitted to return to training and competition safely and within federal, state, local, and university guidelines, the athletic department implemented a number of measures designed to complement and enhance the university's highly-successful Return To Learn program. Notable actions include being physically distanced when practical, including during out-of-season training sessions; wearing masks, except when undergoing physically strenuous exercise; and maintaining proper hygiene. Athletes, coaches, and staff are testing at a higher frequency than the campus population, teams adhere to CDC, NCAA, and Big West Conference guidelines, and department officials participate in regular meetings with conference and university-affiliated physicians and the UC San Diego emergency operations staff.