LA JOLLA, Calif.— Anthony Cherfan had a team-high 16 kills and
Sebastian Lara dropped a career-high 15 kills to lift the 18th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team to a 3-1 win against the University of Charleston Wednesday night.
Scores from LionTree Arena went 25-23, 27-25, 22-25, and 27-25.
With their fourth-consecutive win, the Tritons improved to 7-8 on the season. The Golden Eagles dropped to 8-8.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The combined 31 kills from Cherfan and Lara accounted for 66 percent of the Tritons' total.
Cherfan finished with a team-best 20.5 points as he added three service aces and three blocks to go along with his kill count. The junior opposite also had seven digs.
Lara, a junior outside hitter, logged four blocks and three digs.
The Tritons had a strong presence at the net, finishing with 15 blocks, their second-highest total of the season.
Jim Garrison had seven stuffs (one solo) and
Peter Selcho had six (two solo). Both are redshirt sophomore middles.
Junior setter
Gabriel Dyer dished out 38 assists while leading the Tritons in digs with 10. The junior hit .750 with three kills and no errors in four attack attempts.
UC San Diego held a .271 (47-18-107) attack percentage while Charleston finished at .248 (54-23-125).
For the Golden Eagles, Evens Edouard led all players with 24 kills while hitting .425. Jake Couzens followed with 10 kills and hit .320 (10-2-25). Curtis Raines had a match-high 12 digs.
The match featured 31 tie scores, 14 of those coming in the fourth set. In addition, the lead changed hands 15 times with eight across the final set.
TRITON TIDBITS
• UC San Diego's last four-match win streak came in 2022 between Feb. 11-19. It included back-to-back road victories at No. 11 BYU. The first was the program's inaugural win against the Cougars.
• The University of Charleston is located in Charleston, W. Va., and plays in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA).
• It was just the second-ever meeting between UC San Diego and Charleston. The Tritons swept the Golden Eagles in January of 2016 in La Jolla.
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Sebastian Lara's previous career-high for kills was 13, which he collected twice this season, the last time on Feb. 23 in a win against Big West opponent UC Santa Barbara.
• It was Lara's third match with a double-figure kill total, two of those coming in his last two matches.
• It was Cherfan's seventh outing with 10 or more kills.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
WHAT SEBASTIAN LARA HAD TO SAY
UP NEXT
The Tritons jump right back into Big West action with a home-and-home against UC Irvine, the fifth-ranked team in the country. The Tritons host the Anteaters Friday at 7 p.m., while the action moves to Crawford Hall in Orange County for a 6 p.m. contest on Sunday.
Friday will be a Blue & Gold Rivalry match and the first 100 students at LionTree Arena will get a free banner.
Tickets for all home matches 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.
