Despite some shake-ups in its lineup, the UCSD men’s volleyball team remains winless in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation after a pair of road losses against University of the Pacific and Stanford University.
In Stockton, Calif., on Feb. 14, the Tritons entered the match against UOP with hopes of upsetting the ninth-ranked Tigers, but despite a strong start, UCSD was swept in three games (30-27, 30-26, 30-24).
In game one, the Tritons out-hit the Tigers .394 to .371, but could not come up with the victory, falling short by three points. UCSD’s attack percentage deflated to .125 in the second game, but UOP elevated its efficiency, hitting .425 to take the second game easily.
After a long string of frustrations, Triton head coach Ron Larsen shifted setter Eric Perrine to outside hitter and brought junior Tye Thoreson in to set. The switch did not yield immediate results and the Tigers rolled to the sweep.
Jim Waller led UCSD with 12 kills, Perrine and Thoreson combined for 47 assists, and libero Chris Mortimer paced the defense with a match-high 15 digs.
Mortimer commented later about the frustrations of the recent Tritons’ play and the familiarity of the situation in which UCSD found itself.
“”It’s felt the same the last few matches we lost, especially against BYU, where we’re playing really well for periods of times during games — we’re just not able to extend that over the course of a competitive match,”” he said.
The following night, the Tritons suffered from more of the same against Stanford. Despite the absence of the Cardinals’ 2002 All-American opposite Curt Toppel, Stanford had more than enough firepower to take care of UCSD.
The Cardinals started quickly and sprinted out to an early lead. David Vogel put down back-to-back kills to stretch the lead to 13-7; after that, Stanford didn’t look back, going on to a 30-24 victory.
The Tritons were far more offensively competitive in game two, with Thoreson doing the setting for the match and picking up 19 kills. That would not be enough, however, since Stanford squeezed out a 34-32 win.
Down 2-0, and after losing a tough game, UCSD could have quit, but instead fought back bravely in game three. Waller picked up five of his team-high 23 kills and combined with Perrine and Brian Foott on a block at game point to give the Tritons a 33-31 victory.
It was Stanford that enjoyed most of the dominance at the net, compiling 20 blocks on the evening. In the fourth game, the Cardinals pressured UCSD into nine hitting errors for a total of 38 on the match, and Stanford took a 30-24 decision for the 3-1 win.
Thoreson dished out 56 assists on the night, and Mortimer and Perrine each picked up 13 digs, but the story of the match was UCSD’s two biggest offensive weapons, Waller and Perrine, who combined for 29 attack errors.
“”We kind of struggled all night on [Feb. 15] with hitting errors,”” Mortimer said. “”It was reflective of both good blocking by Stanford and careless hitting errors.””
UCSD returns home Feb. 21 for matches against CSU Northridge and UC Santa Barbara, hoping to cut down on errors and pick up the elusive first MPSF win.