NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Trailing two sets to none, No. 18 UC San Diego men's volleyball won the next three sets to get the reverse sweep and down No. 16 CSUN on the road in Big West men's volleyball action Friday.
Scores from Premier America Credit Union Arena were 22-25, 18-25, 25-18, 25-23, and 15-12.
The Tritons swept the regular season conference series as they won in four sets Thursday in La Jolla.
UC San Diego, now on a four-match win streak, is 11-10 on the season and 3-2 in the Big West. CSUN is 9-10 overall and 0-2 in the conference.
In the fifth and deciding set, he Tritons won four of the first five points, two of those points coming from Sebastian Lara kills. A three-point run by CSUN evened it at 5-5. The teams traded points all the way up to 10-10. Anthony Cherfan's back-to-back kills put the Tritons up 12-10. At 13-12 UC San Diego, the Tritons closed it out with a Lara kill followed by a Matador attack error.
Lara finished with a career-high 17 kills. Anthony Cherfan was close behind with 16.
Gabriel Dyer had 46 assists en route to setting the Tritons to a .316 attack percentage. He also had a career-high 13 digs.
Cherfan and Jim Garrison each had five blocks for UC San Diego.
For CSUN, Kyle Hobus put down a match-high 19 kills and Jalen Phillips had 15. Donovan Constable had four aces.
UC San Diego out-hit CSUN .316 to .299.
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WHAT HEAD COACH BRAD ROSTRATTER HAD TO SAY
"Tonight was a battle, it was a grind. The first two sets, CSUN played to the level they're able to play at. They were really, really good from the service line and that totally ruined our rhythm. They were able to capitalize on their good serving and they added in some really good blocking. Luckily for us, we stayed resilient and were able to grind and work our way back and find our rhythm and play the volleyball that we're trying to play. That started with our first contact. Our serving got a little bit better. Our passing definitely improved and we were able to take some of their serving pressure away and level the playing field. We knew we wanted to play as much volleyball as possible and with us serving and hitting and enjoying some long rallies, it was a heck of a battle. Any road win is going to be tough in the Big West and to be able to do it in five in the manner we were able to pull it off was definitely exciting."
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TRITON TIDBITS
• The last time UC San Diego lost the first two sets and came back to win was in 2022 against BYU.
• The last time the Tritons swept a regular season series against a Big West team was 2022 vs. UC Irvine.
• UC San Diego is 3-1 in five-set matches this season.
• UC San Diego has won the last three meetings against CSUN.
• Both teams were picked to finish in a tie for fifth in the Big West Preseason Coaches' poll.
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UP NEXT
Through two of seven-straight Big West matches, UC San Diego next plays a pair against Long Beach State, the second-ranked team in the country. On March 29, the home-and-home kicks off in Long Beach at 7 p.m. The following day, LionTree Arena hosts the rematch at 7 p.m.
Tickets for all home matches are available from 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.
