The No. 15-ranked UCSD men’s volleyball team didn’t play its best match against Princeton on Jan. 26, but it played well enough to win. Two days after stunning Stanford, 3-1, the Tritons came out flat and played down to a less skilled Princeton team that was able to steal a game from UCSD before the Tritons closed it out 3-1 (31-29, 30-16, 28-30 and 30-21). UCSD improved to 4-2 on the season with the victory.
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The Tigers opened their four-game California swing at RIMAC Arena with the excitement of a team ready to get things started. The Tritons managed to subdue their opponents’ enthusiasm somewhat with an 8-3 run to open the match, but the Tigers kept fighting and were able to close to within a point at 14-13. Princeton pushed several strings of points against the Tritons in the late going, and the Tigers had UCSD with its back to the wall at 29-28. The Tritons responded to the challenge, however, and were able to bear down and grab three consecutive points to escape with a narrow 31-29 win.
Game two showed the talent gap between the teams as UCSD came out poised and ready to keep Princeton from hanging around and keeping things close. Triton senior opposite Jim Waller had four of his 10 kills in the match during the second game, senior middle Kevin Keyser contributed three of his 12 kills and sophomore outside hitter Jeff Urton had three of his match-high 15 to help the Tritons earn a .391 to .077 attacking advantage for game two.
Attacking percentages don’t always tell the story, however, as the Tritons learned in game three, where they held a .269 to .067 advantage in that category but were still defeated, 30-28. In a performance the Tritons would prefer not to repeat, they committed seven attack errors, six service errors and five ball-handling errors, but still had a chance to win. Leading 28-27, UCSD allowed Princeton to grab the next point and then committed consecutive errors to close the game, 30-28.
Triton head coach Ron Larsen made sure his team was more prepared in game four, and UCSD cruised, 30-21. Junior outside hitter Adam Toren led the Tritons with 20 points on 14 kills, three aces and six block assists. Senior middle hitter Andy Rupp led UCSD with eight total blocks despite playing just three games. Junior setter Nate Jones handed out 47 assists, and junior libero Dickens Tai set a season-high with 18 digs in the match.
UCSD is now on the road for one of its toughest road trips ever. The Tritons opened their trip with a game at No. 4 Hawaii on Jan. 28, but results from that game were not available at press time. UCSD will face Hawaii again on Jan. 30 before reversing course and heading across the country to Pennsylvania, where it will take on No. 11 Penn State and defending national champion No. 14 Lewis on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7, respectively. UCSD will then return to the West Coast for three tough Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches at No. 3 UCLA, No. 9 UC Irvine and No. 1 Pepperdine.
