LA JOLLA, Calif. - In its final home match of the season, the 13th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team was swept by No. 3 UC Santa Barbara Thursday at RIMAC Arena.
Scores of the non-conference contest went 30-28, 25-23, and 25-23.
UC San Diego falls to 3-11 overall, while UC Santa Barbara improves to 12-4.
It was also Senior Night at RIMAC Arena as middle blocker
Gabe Avillion, outside hitter
Bryce Curtis, opposite hitter
Macune Gilruth, and opposite
Collin Shannon made their final career appearance at home. Shannon finished with 10 kills, four digs, and two blocks, while Avillion had three kills, two blocks, and two digs and hit .600 with no errors in five attack attempts.
Outsides
Kyle McCauley and
Ryan Ka had 11 and 10 kills, respectively, for the Tritons. McCauley added five digs, three assists, two blocks, and a service ace. Ka also contributed nine digs, two aces, and an assist. Libero
Matt Palma led all players with 10 digs. Setter
Bryce Curtis finished with 31 assists.
UC San Diego hit just .151 with 39 kills and 23 errors in 106 attack attempts. UCSB countered at .276 with 41 kills and 14 errors in 98 swings.
Randy DeWeese paced the Gauchos with a match-best 13 kills and Ryan Wilcox followed with 10. Keenan Sanders hit. 583 with seven kills and no errors in 12 attacks. Donovan Todorov had six blocks and Casey McGarry racked up nine digs.
HIGHLIGHT REEL
WHAT COACH KEVIN RING HAD TO SAY
TRITON TIDBITS
•
Kyle McCauley has had at least 10 kills in 12 of 14 matches this season.
• UC San Diego was without senior outside hitter
Wyatt Harrison for the 13th straight match due to injury.
UP NEXT
UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara play each other for the fifth time this season on Saturday, April 17, at 4 p.m. in Santa Barbara. It will be the final Big West Conference regular season match 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.
