CHICAGO — No. 11 UC San Diego men's volleyball will play its fourth and fifth-straight matches against top-10 opponents this weekend as the Tritons visit No. 9 Lewis on Friday and No. 7 Loyola Chicago on Saturday.
Both matches will begin at 5:00 p.m. PST. Friday's match with the Flyers will be available on a YouTube live stream, while Saturday's match with the Ramblers will be broadcast on ESPN+.
MATCH DETAILS
Match 7
No. 11 UC San Diego at No. 9 Lewis
Friday, Jan. 30 | 5:00 p.m. PST
Neil Carey Arena | Romeoville, Ill.
Series History: Lewis leads 8-3
Last Meeting: Lewis won 3-1 on Jan. 14, 2023, in Romeoville, Ill. (
Box Score)
Watch |
Live Stats
Match 8
No. 11 UC San Diego at No. 7 Loyola Chicago
Saturday, Jan. 31 | 5:00 p.m. PST
Gentile Arena | Chicago, Ill.
Series History: Loyola Chicago leads 7-2
Last Meeting: Loyola Chicago won 3-2 on Feb. 1, 2025, in La Jolla, Calif. (
Box Score)
Watch |
Live Stats
ABOUT THE TRITONS
Roster |
Schedule & Results |
Statistics
- Location: La Jolla, Calif.
- Conference: Big West
- Overall: 3-3
- Big West: 0-0
- Home: 3-1
- Away: 0-2
- Neutral: 0-0
- vs Ranked: 0-3
- Streak: L3
- AVCA National Ranking: 11
- Big West Preseason Poll: Tied 4th out of 6
ABOUT THE LEWIS FLYERS
Roster |
Schedule & Results |
Statistics
ABOUT THE LOYOLA CHICAGO RAMBLERS
Roster |
Schedule & Results |
Statistics
FUTURE SCHEDULE CHANGE
The Tritons' road match at Concordia will now be on Thursday, Feb. 12. UC San Diego will still host the Golden Eagles on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
AN ACE BEHIND THE LINE
Junior outside hitter
Josh Ewert's 12 aces this season have him 15th nationally in service aces per set. Ewert has at least one ace in every match this season and has recorded multiple aces in four of the six matches. As a team the Tritons average 1.62 aces per set, good for 20th nationally.
SEBA SCORES
Junior outside hitter
Sebastiano Sani is 36th nationally in points per set (3.86), 40th in kills per set (3.19) and 50th in hitting percentage (.312).
FAMILIAR TERRITORY
The Tritons are no strangers to a string of matches against quality teams. In 2025, UC San Diego played eight-straight matches against Top 10 teams from Apr. 4 to Apr. 19 and 13-straight against Top 25 teams from Mar. 7 to Apr. 25.
AMONG THE RANKS
The Jan. 26
AVCA National Collegiate Poll sees the Tritons at No. 11 for the second-straight week. UC San Diego will face fellow ranked opponents in 18 of their 25 matches this season. Those contests will be an even split between home and away.
- No. 1 UCLA (L, 0-3)
- No. 2 Long Beach State
- No. 3 Hawai'i
- No. 5 UC Irvine
- No. 7 Loyola Chicago
- No. 8 BYU (L, 0-3; L, 1-3)
- No. 9 Lewis
- No. 15 UC Santa Barbara
- No. 17 CSUN
- No. 19 Princeton
- No. 20 Concordia
BIG WEST OUTLOOK
The Tritons were picked to finish in a tie for fourth in the
2026 Big West Men's Volleyball Preseason Coaches' Poll. That mirrors UC San Diego's finish at the end of the 2025 season.
All six Big West teams are ranked nationally. Hawai'i has the best national ranking, checking in at No. 2.
Long Beach State was picked to win The Big West after winning the national championship last season.
2026 WEEKLY HONORS
OH
Josh Ewert,
UCU Athlete of the Week (Jan. 12)
BIG SHOES TO FILL
In 2025, UC San Diego saw opposite hitter
Anthony Cherfan, setter
Bryce Dvorak and outside hitter
Josh Schellinger earn both All-Big West and All-American honors in their final season with the Tritons.
HEAD COACH BRAD ROSTRATTER (
Full Bio)
Brad Rostratter enters his fourth season leading UC San Diego in 2026. He was named head coach of the men's volleyball program on October 7, 2022. Rostratter earned his first career win with the Tritons on Jan. 5, 2023, when the team defeated Lincoln Memorial in five sets at UC Santa Barbara's Asics Invitational. It was the team's season opener. Rostratter collected his first Big West victory on the road at CSUN when the Tritons swept the Matadors on March 16, 2023. A National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Coach of the Year and two-time Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) Coach of the Year, Rostratter came to La Jolla from Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, Calif., where he served as the men's volleyball head coach since the program's inception in 2019. He led the Lions to a pair of GSAC regular season titles, a league tournament title, and two appearances at the NAIA National Tournament.
| Overall |
Wins |
Losses |
Pct. |
|
Big West |
Wins |
Losses |
Pct. |
| 2026 |
3 |
2 |
.600 |
|
2026 |
0 |
0 |
N/A |
| 2025 |
18 |
12 |
.600 |
|
2025 |
3 |
7 |
.300 |
| 2024 |
12 |
15 |
.444 |
|
2024 |
4 |
6 |
.400 |
| 2023 |
8 |
17 |
.320 |
|
2023 |
2 |
8 |
.200 |
| Totals |
41 |
46 |
.471 |
|
Totals |
9 |
20 |
.310 |
2026 BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP
The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship will be April 23-25 at the Bren Events Center on the campus of UC Irvine. All six Big West squads will participate.
The top two seeds after the regular season will earn a bye to the semifinal round of the single-elimination championship. Tickets will go on sale at a later date.
UC San Diego Athletics completed a department-wide transition to NCAA Division I in 2024. All Tritons sports are eligible for conference and national postseason play.
At the 2025 edition, the fourth-seeded Tritons defeated five seed UC Santa Barbara in five sets in the quarterfinal round. The Tritons then faced top-seeded Long Beach State in the semifinals, falling in three sets.
UC SAN DIEGO ON THE WORLDWIDE LEADER
Most UC San Diego home men's and women's basketball games, men's and women's soccer matches, men's and women's volleyball matches, baseball and softball games are broadcast live on ESPN+. For more information on where to watch UC San Diego volleyball, visit
UCSDTritons.com/live.
WHY THE TRITONS?
The Triton is described as the offspring of Poseidon and Amphitrite, a demigod of the sea with a lower part of the body like that of a fish. It is known as a mighty and fierce sea warrior. Given UC San Diego's close proximity to the Pacific Ocean and its connections with the world-famous Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Triton became our mascot in 1964.
TRITON VOLLEYBALL TALK
As part of UC San Diego's transition to Division I, the Athletics Department launched a weekly podcast,
Tritoncast. New episodes of Tritoncast are available on the most popular podcasting apps and on UCSDTritons.com. For individual show information and listen links, follow Tritoncast on X
@Tritoncast.
GET SOCIAL WITH UC SAN DIEGO VOLLEYBALL
Keep up with the Tritons all season long on social media through
X and
Instagram. The team's handle is @ucsdmvb.
FOR THE YOUNGER CROWD
Got some young Triton fans in your family? If they are eighth grade or under, check out the
Junior Triton Club. Membership includes a free t-shirt, admission to over 100 UC San Diego home athletic events, and much more!
GEAR
For the latest Triton apparel and accessories,
click here.
UP NEXT
The Tritons will next play Concordia in a pair of matches. The two teams will play in La Jolla at LionTree Arena on Feb. 11, with the second match scheduled to be played in Irvine on Feb. 12.
NCAA MEN'S VOLLEYBALL LANDSCAPE
The NCAA combines Division I and Division II teams into a single national championship (National Collegiate Championship), while Division III squads have a stand-alone championship (NCAA Division III National Championship).
There are 74 national collegiate men's volleyball programs combined, 30 Division I and 44 Division II. Nine conferences feature 65 of those institutions, with the other nine being independent. Conference affiliations are below, with an asterisk denoting the Tritons' 2026 opponents.
Big West (6)
Cal State Northridge (DI)*
Long Beach State (DI)*
UC Irvine (DI)*
UC San Diego (DI)
UC Santa Barbara (DI)*
University of Hawaii (DI)*
Conference Carolinas (8)
Barton College (DII)
Belmont Abbey College (DII)
Emmanuel (DII)
Erskine College (DII)
King University (DII)
Lees-McRae College (DII)
Mount Olive College (DII)
North Greenville (DII)
ECC (4)
American International College (DII)
Dominican (NY) (DII)
Roberts Wesleyan (DII)
St. Thomas Aquinas (DII)
EIVA (7)
George Mason (DI)
Harvard University (DI)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (DI)
Pennsylvania State University (DI)
Princeton University (DI)*
University of Charleston (DII)
Sacred Heart University (DI)
GLVC (7)
Jamestown (DII)
Maryville University (DII)
Missouri S&T (DII)
Rockhurst University (DII)*
Roosevelt University (DII)
Southwest Baptist University (DII)
Thomas More (DII)
MIVA (10)
Ball State University (DI)
Purdue University, Fort Wayne (DI)
Lewis University (DII)*
Lindenwood University (DI)
Loyola Chicago (DI)*
McKendree University (DII)
Northern Kentucky University (DI)
Ohio State University (DI)
Queens University of Charlotte (DI)
Quincy University (DII)
MPSF (10)
Brigham Young University (DI)*
Concordia University Irvine (DII)*
Jessup University (DII)*
Menlo College (DII)*
Pepperdine University (DI)
Stanford (DI)
UCLA (DI)*
UC Merced (DII)*
University of Southern California (DI)
Vanguard University (DII)*
NEC (7)
Daemen University (DII)*
D'Youville (DII)
Fairleigh Dickinson (DI)
Long Island University (DI)
Manhattan College (DI)
Saint Francis University (DI)
UMES (DI)
SIAC (6)
Benedict College (DII)
Central State University (DII)
Edward Waters College (DII)
Fort Valley State University (DII)
Kentucky State University (DII)
LeMoyne-Owen College (DII)
Independents (9)
Barry University (DII)
Catawba College (DII)
Lincoln Memorial University (DII)
Merrimack College (DI)
Newberry College (DII)
Tusculum University (DII)
University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón (DII)
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (DII)
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (DII)
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 has begun a new era as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 24-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 39 have garnered 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 NCAA Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.
