LA JOLLA, Calif. - A battle of epic proportions took place Saturday evening at RIMAC Arena with the No. 13 University of California San Diego men's volleyball team out-lasting CSUN to win in five sets.
Scores of the Big West Conference bout were 25-20, 12-25, 25-23, 35-37*, and 15-10. UC San Diego is now 3-7 overall with an even 3-3 mark in conference action. CSUN fell to 1-5 on the season and 1-5 in the Big West.
The marathon fourth set featured 24 tie scores and just four lead changes.
With the fifth and deciding frame tied 9-9, UC San Diego reeled off four straight points to go up 13-9. Outsides
Kyle McCauley and
Ryan Ka each had a kill and McCauley combined with middle
Shane Benetz on a block during the run. The two teams then traded service errors, bringing the Tritons to match point. Benetz and opposite
Collin Shannon iced the victory when they collaborated on a big block.
Both squads hit well over .300 for the night. CSUN finished at .391 with 68 kills and 16 errors in 133 attack attempts. The Matadors had a near-perfect second set, hitting .857 with 12 kills and zero errors in 14 attacks. UC San Diego came in at .336 with 63 kills and 20 errors in 128 swings. It was a season-best attack percentage for the Tritons, who also hit north of .300 (.303) in Friday night's sweep of the Matadors in Northridge.
McCauley led all players with 22 kills, a season-high and just two short of matching a career-high for the All-American. For the second-consecutive night and third time this season McCauley put down three aces from the service line. He also had a season-high four blocks as well as four digs. Ka and Shannon also finished with double-digit kill totals, Ka with 14 and Shannon with 12. Shannon hit .417 while also contributing seven digs and three blocks. Benetz totaled five blocks, setter
Blake Crisp had 46 assists, and libero
Matt Palma collected 10 digs.
Three Matadors also had 10 or more kills including Griffin Walters (17), Daniel Wetter (16), and Maciej Ptaszynski (15). Ptaszynski hit .577 with just a single error in 26 swings and Wetter had five blocks (three solos). Ryan DeWeese floored five aces, Kyle Merchen had 49 assists, and Sean Mitchell rang up a match-high 14 digs.
HIGHLIGHT REEL
WHAT COACH KEVIN RING HAD TO SAY
TRITON TIDBITS
• The last time the Tritons beat the Matadors in a two-match season series was 1986.
• With two-straight wins, UC San Diego has its first win streak of the season.
• Prior to Friday's win, the the Tritons had dropped the previous five meetings against the Matadors.
•
Kyle McCauley has finished with at least 10 kills in nine of 10 matches.
• UC San Diego was without senior outside hitter
Wyatt Harrison for the ninth consecutive match due to injury.
UP NEXT
UC San Diego faces seventh-ranked Long Beach State in a pair of Big West contests next week. The home-and-home series begins on Friday, April 9 in La Jolla and moves to Long Beach on Saturday, April 10. Both matches start at 4 p.m. The Beach is 3-3 after dropping two matches at No. 1 Hawaii this week - one in five sets, the other in four.
* Not a typo
------
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.
