LA JOLLA, Calif. – For the second-straight night the No. 17 UC San Diego men's volleyball team battled but came up short against top-ranked Long Beach State, losing in straight sets at LionTree Arena Saturday.
Scores of the Big West contest were 26-24, 25-19, and 25-19.
The Tritons fell to 11-12 overall and 3-4 in conference play, while the Beach improved to 20-1 and 6-0.
It was the 10th-consecutive victory for Long Beach State, which also downed UC San Diego 3-0 Friday night in Los Angeles County.
------
HOW IT HAPPENED
Outside hitters Sebastian Lara and Josh Schellinger each had nine kills for UC San Diego. Opposite Anthony Cherfan finished with six kills and middle blocker Jim Garrison had four while adding five blocks (one solo) to his stat line.
Defensively, the Tritons got eight digs from libero Evan Boyle. Schellinger and setter Gabriel Dyer each had seven digs. Dyer dished out 29 assists.
Long Beach State was paced by Nathan Harlan and Skyler Varga, who both put down 11 kills. Simon Torwie had seven kills and hit .636. He also chipped in with three aces, two blocks (one solo), and two digs.
UC San Diego hit .148 in the match with 32 kills and 19Â errors in 88 attack attempts. Long Beach State countered at .278 (42-15-97).
The teams wasted no time getting into it with 15 of the night's 16 tie scores coming in the opening set. At 23-23, a Beach attack error gave the Tritons set point. However, the visitors took the next three points on two Triton errors, one from the service line and another on the attack, plus a kill from Sotiri Siapanis to go up 1-0 in the match.
UC San Diego showed its most potent offensive output in the second set, hitting .522 with 14 kills and just two errors in 23 swings. The Beach came out firing, getting out to an early 4-1 lead. Trailing 14-8, UC San Diego got back in it with back-to-back-to-back kills by Cherfan, Lara, and middle Peter Selcho. A later Cherfan kill saw the Tritons back within two points at 16-14. However, the Beach used a five-point run to take a 21-14 lead and UC San Diego could not dig itself out of the seven-point deficit.
In the third set, the Tritons kept it close but never took a lead or tied up the score. Behind 19-17, a Schellinger kill brought UC San Diego back within a single point, but Long Beach State closed out the match strong, winning six of the next seven points.
------
MATCH HIGHLIGHTSÂ Â
------
WHAT BRAD ROSTRATTERÂ HAD TO SAY
------
TRITON TIDBITS
• Long Beach State has won the past four meetings between the two teams.
• The Tritons' last win against the Beach came in 2022.
• Long Beach State's lone loss of the season came against UCLA in four sets on Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.
------
UP NEXT
UC San Diego plays just once next week as it travels to UC Santa Barbara for a Big West match-up on April 5 (6 p.m.). The Tritons defeated the Gauchos, 3-1, back on Feb. 23 in La Jolla.
Tickets for all home matches are available from the
Triton Box Office.
------
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.
Â
Â
