COLUMBUS, Ohio — Matthew Lim and
Anthony Cherfan combined for 25 kills but the No. 17 UC San Diego men's volleyball team was edged, 3-2, Saturday on the road at No. 5 Ohio State.
Scores from the Covelli Center went 24-26, 25-20, 21-25, 25-11, and 15-11 in favor of OSU.
The Tritons are now 2-3 with the loss while the Buckeyes kept their record perfect at 4-0.
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HOW IT HAPPENEDÂ Â
Trailing 14-9 in the deciding set, UC San Diego rallied to turn aside two match points, the first on a Buckeye service error, the second on a kill by Lim. However, Ohio State closed it out with a kill by Shane Wetzel, his 19th of the contest.
UC San Diego hit .212 (39-15-113), its second-lowest attack percentage of the season thus far. Both teams went sub-.300 as Ohio State finished at .270 (68-31-137). However, the Buckeyes held substantial advantages in points (82.5 to 54.5), kills (68-39), aces (9-4), assists (65-34), and digs (51-26). The Tritons out-blocked the Buckeyes, 11 to five.
Lim led all Tritons with 13 kills while Cherfan was just behind with 12. Lim also posted a team-high 16.5 points, which matched his career best, and added a career-high six blocks (one solo). He was also the team leader in digs with six. Cherfan had two of the Tritons' four aces.
Peter Selcho, the team leader in blocks, added another seven to his total. Setter
Cameron Wurl ended his outing with 28 assists, six digs, a block, and an ace.
For OSU, Jacob Pasteur led all players with 20 kills and he recorded a double-double with 10 digs. Cole Young hit .556 with 12 kills and just two errors in 18 attacks. Michael Wright dished out 58 assists and Thomas Poole had 17 digs.
With the Tritons trailing 24-23 in the first set of the match, they ran off three-consecutive points - a
Jim Garrison kill followed by back-to-back Cherfan aces - to go up 1-0.
UC San Diego led early in the second set, taking a 5-1 lead on a block by Cherfan and Selcho. The Tritons stayed in front until 9-5, at which point Ohio State went on a five-point run to take a 10-9 advantage, its first lead of the set. After a Buckeye service error that made it 10-10, the home team ran off three-consecutive points and stayed ahead the rest of the way.
Tied at 16 in the third set, back-to-back kills by Garrison and
Sebastian Lara put the Tritons up and they would stay in front for the remainder of the set. At 22-20, UC San Diego took three of the next four points on kills - two by Lim and another by Cherfan.
Ohio State jumped on it early in the fourth set, scoring eight of the first 10 points. A later 8-1 run resulted in a 20-8 lead and the Tritons played from behind until the Buckeyes evened the match, 2-2.
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TRITON TIDBITS
• It was the fifth time this season that a set went to extra points for UC San Diego.
• It was the second five-set match for UC San Diego this season (3-2 win vs. NJIT on 1/6 in Santa Barbara).
• The Tritons and Buckeyes last met in 2017 (OSU wins 3-0 in Columbus).
• UC San Diego's last victory against Ohio State was in 2011 (3-1 in La Jolla).
• UC San Diego is now 1-4 in the all-time series against Ohio State.
• Ohio State was picked to repeat as the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) champion this season.
• Six players have made their Triton career debuts in 2024:
Luke Chandler,
Anthony Cherfan,
Sebastian Lara,
Leo Pravednikov,
Leo Wiemelt, and
Cameron Wurl.
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NEXT UP
After five road matches to open the season, UC San Diego finally gets to compete at LionTree Arena as it hosts 15th-ranked Princeton (2-0) on Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 5 p.m. Tickets are available through the
Triton Box Office.
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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 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.
