LA JOLLA, Calif. — In its first home match of the 2023 season, the UC San Diego men's volleyball team was firing on all cylinders as it swept Emmanuel Tuesday night inside LionTree Arena.
The Tritons improved to 2-4 overall while the Lions dropped to 1-4.
It was the first win in La Jolla with the Tritons for first-year head coach
Brad Rostratter.
------
HOW IT HAPPENED
UC San Diego exhibited a potent offense and hit .387 overall, the team's best attack percentage so far this season. The Tritons put down 44 kills with only 15 errors in 75 attempts.
Conversely, Emmanuel, out of Georgia and the Conference Carolinas, swung at -.109 with 13 kills and 20 errors in 64 swings.
The Tritons held advantages in just about every category including points (59-17), kills (44-13), blocks (11-2), digs (25-12), assists (42-12), and service aces (4-2). Their 11 blocks were a season high.
Individually,
Josh Schellinger had a stellar outing, finishing with a match-high 14 kills to go along with a .579 (14-3-19) hitting percentage and seven digs.
At the net,
Peter Selcho had seven block assists,
Ryan Ka had five, and
Andrew Boyle had four.
Boyle and
Gabriel Dyer split setting duties with Boyle amassing 21 assists and Dyer collecting 18.
Evan Boyle led all players with his nine digs.
For the Lions, Jayden Young led with eight kills.
UC San Diego wasted no time getting to business, hitting .556 (19-4-27) in the first set.
With the Tritons trailing 3-1 in the opening frame, they won 12 of the next 13 points to take a 13-4 advantage and they stayed in front the rest of the way.
In set two, UC San Diego led all the way up to 15-11. At that point, Emmanuel reeled off four-straight points to tie it up at 15. The Tritons responded with a four-point run of their own to go back up, where they stayed until the end of the set. To give UC San Diego a 2-0 lead in the match, Schellinger and
Brett Pursley closed it out with a kill and an ace, respectively.
The third and final set was close early. Tied at 4-4, three straight blocks put the Tritons up and they would not trail again. Boyle,
Nick Rigo, Selcho, and Ka were all in on the block party with Selcho and Boyle registered two each. UC San Diego cushioned its lead further following a
Berkeley Miesfeld kill, a triple block by Selcho, Miesfeld, and Ka, plus another block by Selcho and Ka. That three-point run gave UC San Diego a 10-5 lead and the Lions weren't able to get back into the match.
------
WHAT HEAD COACH BRAD ROSTRATTER HAD TO SAY
------
TRITON TIDBITS
• It was the first-ever meeting between UC San Diego and Emmanuel.
• The Tritons started the season with five road matches.
• Eight Tritons have made their collegiate debuts so far this season:
Evan Boyle,
Jim Garrison,
Michael Robertson,
Brett Pursley,
Josh Schellinger,
Peter Selcho,
Sam Warren,
Zachary Weston. Weston's debut came in tonight's match.
•
Brad Rostratter, who was named UC San Diego's head coach on Oct. 7, 2022, earned his first win with the Tritons on Jan. 5 when they defeated Lincoln Memorial.
------
UP NEXT
The Tritons stay in La Jolla to host Menlo College on Wednesday, January 18, at 7 p.m.
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
------
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 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 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 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Divisions I and II.
