The UC San Diego Women’s Volleyball team (11–14, 4–9 Big West) matched up against UC Davis (10–13, 5–8 Big West) at the LionTree arena, where they saw defeat to the Aggies, 3–0. A disappointing performance from the Tritons in their home arena, this marks their fourth time losing 3–0 this season. UC Davis took both games this season against the Tritons, completing the sweep. UC Davis led all statistical categories in the game, a full show of domination against UCSD. The Tritons lacked the energy on Friday night to compete with the Aggies, which resulted in one of their worst losses of the season. 

The first set started off well for UCSD as they took a one point advantage off the back of a block from sophomore middle blocker Emily McDaniel and freshman outside hitter Katie Rapp, pushing the score to 7–8. McDaniel would finish the night with a team leading six blocks. Unfortunately for the Tritons, the Aggies went on a huge run, scoring seven straight points and turning the lead to six at a 14–8 scoreline. The Tritons were down big but surged back into the game off of two back-to-back kills from sophomore outside hitter Zaria Henderson, tying the game at 22–22. The Tritons completed the comeback and were primed to take the lead and the first set. Unluckily for the Tritons, two back-to-back attack errors lead to their demise, as the Aggies closed out the first set 25–22.

UCSD started the second set on the back foot with UC Davis taking a strong lead early at 11–4 off of another huge run. Off of two attacking errors from UC Davis, and a kill from sophomore outside hitter Ava McInnes, the Tritons were able to pull within three points at a score of 15–12. Unfortunately for the Tritons, 3 was the closest they would ever get, as UC Davis would push the lead to 5 and keep it that way for the remainder of the set. A final kill for the UC Davis side would mark the end of the set at a scoreline of 25–20. The Aggies took a commanding lead, with the Tritons needing to come out faster in the third set. 

Down 2–0,  UCSD faced defeat. The team would have to make an inspired comeback to win the match, and in the third set, it looked like they could do just that. The Tritons started out strong, taking an early 5–6 lead off of kills from McInnes and Rapp. This lead was short-lived as the Aggies went on a huge run only stopped by their own scoring error. The score was at a staggering 15–8, with more points pouring on for the UC Davis side. Another run for the Aggies pushed this set out of reach for the Tritons at a score of 22–9. Shortly thereafter, the Aggies would clean the set up and end the Tritons’ misery as a 25–12 scoreline. This was a  disappointing finish to this three set match for the Tritons.

After the game, The UCSD Guardian caught up with Coach Ricci Luyties, and asked him about his team’s performance. 

“I thought this was maybe our worst of the year so far,” Luyties said. “We just didn’t have a lot of energy, we weren’t in sync pretty much the whole night. We weren’t playing very good defense, it was a little disappointing.”

 When asked how the Tritons would get ready for the game the next night against UC Riverside, Luyties responded, “We have to learn from what happened tonight and change everything we did and come out a completely different team tomorrow night against Riverside.” 

The Tritons next face off against UC Irvine on Thursday, Nov. 10, where they look to redeem themselves for a close loss they had to the Anteaters earlier in the season.

Image Courtesy of Millie Root