LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 13th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team (6-13) travels to Romeoville, Illinois to take on 15th-ranked Lewis (11-4) for matches on March 12th and 13th. The Tritons have played well away from RIMAC Arena, with five of their six wins coming away from La Jolla. The Flyers recently faced UCLA and Cal Baptist in California, losing in three to UCLA and sweeping CBU. This road trip marks UCSD's third consecutive road trip and the Tritons will take a week off the following week for final exams. UCSD returns to conference action on March 26-27 when it hosts Stanford and Pacific.
Last week Lewis was swept by UCLA by scores of 30-22, 30-27, 30-25. In the match, Lewis was held to a .135 attack percentage and Nathan Klaas led the way with 10 kills.
The next night, the Flyers upset Cal Baptist, the NAIA's No. 1 ranked team by scores of 30-23, 32-30, 30-24. Ian Karbiener led the way with nine kills while Klaas added seven kills.
Klaas leads Lewis with 3.52 kills per set while Karbiener adds 3.29 kills per set. Aaron Flick has a team-best .385 attack percentage while Mike Iandolo has a team-high 11.44 assists per set. Chris Biscardi has a team-high 1.56 blocks per set.
Last week the Tritons dropped a 30-18, 30-20, 28-30, 30-20 decision to No. 2 Stanford. Joel Davidson had 17 kills while Cyrus Kiani and Alex Simon added nine kills apiece.
UCSD earned its fifth win away from home against Pacific, defeating the Tigers 31-29, 30-17, 33-35, 30-24. Four different Tritons recorded at least 10 kills, led by Frank Fritsch with 19 kills. Adrian Guthals and Jason Spangler added 13 kills each, while Kiani added 12 kills on .647 hitting.
With a break from Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action, the Tritons are 4.5 games out of the final playoff spot with eight conference matches remaining.
In the UCSD career record book, Spangler enters the week two aces shy of tying the school record. Spangler enters the week with 78 career aces which trails Jim Waller who had 80 aces from 2001-04.
Spangler continues to increase his career kills mark with 1,357 career kills. Teammate Frank Fritsch is fourth all-time with 1,232 career kills. Third place on the list belongs to Tom Black who had 1,268 kills in his Triton career.
