NORTHRIDGE, Calif. — The ninth-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team hit .356 and had three players reach a double-figure kill total in a 3-0 sweep of conference opponent CSUN Saturday night on the road.
Scores from the Big West Conference match at the newly-named Premier America Credit Union Arena went 25-19, 32-30, and 25-22.
The Tritons improved to 12-8 overall and 4-3 in the Big West. The Matadors, who swept the Tritons Friday night in La Jolla, dropped to 6-11 and 1-5.
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HOW IT HAPPENED
For the 10th time this season, UC San Diego hit north of .300 with 48 kills and 16 errors in 90 attack attempts. The Tritons hit over .400 in sets one and two. Outside hitter
Kyle McCauley and opposite
Wyatt Harrison played a big part in that number. McCauley hit .478 with a match-high 14 kills, while Harrison came in at .385 with 13 kills. Outside
Ryan Ka also finished his night with 13 kills.
Setter
Blake Crisp orchestrated the offense and finished with 44 kills to go along with five digs.
Defensively, Triton libero
Matt Palma led all players with seven digs. All three of UC San Diego's blocks were solo jobs as middle
Logan Clark had two and Ka had one. Ka also had three of UC San Diego's six service aces.
CSUN hit .244 (34-15-78) and was led offensively by Kyle Hobus with 12 kills. Hobus also contributed a team-high five digs. Daniel Wetter had eight kills and hit .313. He was strong at the net, collecting five total blocks, two of those solos. The Matadors out-blocked the Tritons, 7-3.
Tied at 12-12 in the first set, a Matador service errors put the Tritons ahead and they stayed in that position the rest of the way. At 22-19, three-straight points on a Harrison kill, a McCauley ace, and a Ka kill put UC San Diego up 1-0.
In the marathon second set, it was close early until, at 6-6, CSUN rattled off four-straight points, two coming on aces, to take a 10-6 lead. The Matadors held the lead until a Ka kill tied it up at 18-18. The Tritons gained their first lead since early in the set when a Ka service ace made it 21-20. A later Ka kill gave UC San Diego set point at 24-22, but CSUN won three-straight points to earn its own set point. The Matadors had two more set points but the Tritons turned them aside. A Clark kill got UC San Diego back in front, 28-27, for the first time since the team led 24-23. Both side traded points up to 30-30. At that point, Harrison had a kill and the Matadors had an attack error, putting the Tritons up 2-0 in the match.
CSUN got out to a 5-1 advantage in the third frame. With the Matadors ahead 8-5, the Tritons went on a six-point run to lead for the first time at 11-8. Ka had two kills during the run. It stayed tight up until the score was 22-20 in favor of CSUN. UC San Diego then slammed the door shut with five consecutive points to complete the sweep. McCauley and Ka each had a kill and middle
Shane Benetz put down an ace, while the other two points came on Matador errors.
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TRITON TIDBITS
• The Tritons have won four of the last five meetings with the Matadors.
• UC San Diego's 48 kills tonight put the team over the 1,000 mark for the season (1,019).
• It was the fourth time UC San Diego swept its opponent in 2022.
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UP NEXT
With the regular season wrapping up in two weeks, UC San Diego faces off against Long Beach State, the No. 2-ranked squad in the nation, next week. The first match is scheduled for Friday, April 8, at Walter Pyramid in Los Angeles County. The following night, action moves to RIMAC Arena in La Jolla. Both contests are slated to start at 7 p.m.
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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 II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 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.
