No. 11 UC San Diego men’s volleyball (12-13, 3-7 Big West) lost in five sets against No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (14-11, 5-5 Big West) on Saturday at LionTree Arena.
Before the match, the Tritons held a heartfelt Senior Night celebration, honoring nine players in their last regular season match heading into the Big West Championship.
“These nine seniors are so amazing; they’ve done so much,” head coach Brad Rostratter said in a postgame interview with The UCSD Guardian. “Six of them were here since day one with me. One was our first transfer portal guy, and the other two guys that come in had a crazy impact on our program in the first year. So, yeah, [I] could not be more grateful.”
The Tritons set the tone early in the game. With suffocating net coverage from redshirt senior middle blocker Peter Selcho and redshirt junior setter Cameron Wurl, the Tritons forced easy attack errors to take an early lead. The Gauchos struggled to keep up as the Tritons rained down attacks; redshirt junior outside hitter Josh Ewert and redshirt senior opposite hitter Luke Chandler totaled five kills in the set. The Tritons’ energy led to a dominant 25-12 victory in the first set.
Heading into the second set, the Gauchos began to cut down on this dominance. The set was neck and neck as both teams struggled to build momentum. Despite Gaucho sophomore outside hitter Riggs Guy scoring six kills, Chandler helped keep the Tritons afloat with five kills of his own. Although the Gauchos’ numerous service errors gave the Tritons opportunities to close the game, Guy scored kill after kill to turn the tide in the Gauchos’ favor. Despite the close match, the Gauchos forced two attack errors from the Tritons to clinch a 31-29 victory.
The Gauchos continued to hold this momentum entering the third set. Although the Tritons kept things close, evening the score at 16-16, the Gauchos suddenly erupted in a 9-2 run late in the match, closing the set 25-18.
The Gauchos didn’t hold the advantage for long. At the start of the fourth, the Tritons took a 7-2 lead thanks to Wurl and junior outside hitter Sebastiano Sani. Sani took control of the set, slamming five kills to match the Gauchos’ offensive surge. Despite their sudden 7-1 run to tie the score, the Tritons clinched a 26-24 victory to tie the game.
Although the Tritons hoped to maintain their offensive engine entering the fifth, they struggled to match the Gauchos’ expert serves, suffering three aces. Ultimately, the Gauchos dominated the final round to quickly close the match 15-9.
Despite the loss, Rostratter is excited to take on the conference. “We play them again on Thursday,” he said. “The things that we did well, we were really stoked on and keep building going into this next week.”
This loss marks the final game of the Tritons’ regular season as they enter the Big West Championship. Although the Tritons started their season with a seven-game winning streak, they have struggled to compete in conference play. The Tritons remain vigilant as they return to battle against the favored Gauchos this Thursday at the Bren Events Center in Irvine.
