MEN’S VOLLEYBALL ‘mdash; With a sweep of the University of Pacific (30-19, 30-22, 30-24) on April 3 at RIMAC Arena, the No. 10 Tritons (11-13, 7-12 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) set school records this week in both the number of overall program wins and conference wins in a season. The Tritons kicked off their final home stand in fashion, marking their most successful season in conference play.
‘It was an awesome feeling and validating knowing how hard we’ve worked,’ redshirt sophomore outside hitter Will Ehrman said. ‘We’ve improved every year since I’ve been here.’
Following their historic win, the Tritons took on No. 5 Stanford looking to continue their conference success, but lost in four sets (30-26, 21-30, 30-26, 30-25).
‘We played Stanford really tight but in the end, they kicked it into another gear,’ Ehrman said. ‘They served a tougher game than us and wanted it more on defense.’
Despite junior opposite hitter Frank Fritsch’s efforts, including a match-high 22 kills on .378 hitting, the Cardinal (19-8, 12-6 MPSF) overpowered the Tritons, outhitting them at an overall clip of .413, compared to UCSD’s .316.
Ehrman also came out strong, finishing with 19 kills on .289 hitting and a team-high 11 digs.
Sophomore middle back Calvin Ross and sophomore setter Phil Bannan had five blocks apiece. Bannan also notched 57 assists to go along with three kills.
Stanford opened the first set, taking a commanding 10-4 early lead. The Tritons came within three points of a tie on several occasions, but couldn’t close the margin after a 22-19 deficit. The Cardinal went on to score five of the next eight, taking the first set at 30-26.
The first minutes of the second set could best be described as a tug-of-war, with the score tying nine separate times. But the Tritons hit .594 as a team and eventually coasted to a 30-21 victory.
‘We sided out at a really high percentage and were able to put a lot more serving pressure on them and get them out of their system,’ Ehrman said of UCSD’s second-set run.
After another back-and-forth battle, Stanford eventually pulled away, capturing the third set by a score of 30-26.
In the decisive fourth set, Stanford didn’t mess around, opening for an 11-6 lead. UCSD fought back to come within 23-20 after a Fritsch kill, but the Cardinal would not budge, earning the overall victory with a score of 30-25.
On Friday night, the Tritons sought to make school history in their match against University of Pacific (3-23, 0-17 MPSF), and did just that after bringing out the brooms against the Tigers at RIMAC Arena. The win marked seven for the Tritons in league play and 11 overall in the season.
Junior opposite hitter Jason Spangler led the Tritons with 11 kills, while Ehrman added 10 kills of his own. As a team, the Tritons outhit the Tigers .434 to .136. UCSD also outblocked Pacific 7-2.
The first set was tied at six before the Tritons went on a 15-6 rampage to take a 21-12 lead. UCSD cruised to a 30-19 win to set the tone of the match, hitting .458 while holding Pacific to a measly .036 hitting percentage.
The Tritons quickly jumped to a 10-5 lead in the second set after back-to-back Ehrman kills and took a commanding 23-14 lead after an eight-point service run led by Frank Fritsch. The Tritons sealed the set at 30-22.
In a desperate attempt to force a fourth set, the Tigers took a 21-19 lead in the third, but relinquished the advantage after committing several errors. The Tritons took advantage of the miscues and ‘mdash; with their sights set on the UCSD record books ‘mdash; swept Pacific by a final score of 30-2
4.
The Tritons are looking to carry momentum throughout their final home stand against conference rivals CSU Northridge, Cal State Long Beach and UC Santa Barbara.
‘The top eight teams in our conference make the MPSF playoffs and right now we’re in ninth place, one half game behind UCLA,’ Ehrman said. ‘We probably need to beat UCSB and Long Beach State to have a shot.’
Readers can contact Cameron Tillisch at [email protected].