NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - The UC San Diego men's volleyball team hit a season-low .027 (20-18-73) and lost to No. 15 CSUN, 3-0, in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) action Friday night at The Matadome. Set scores were 25-20, 25-13 and 25-21.
UCSD dropped to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the MPSF in concluding its season-long four-match road stretch to begin 2015. Contesting its conference opener, CSUN moved to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in league play. The Matadors have won the last five meetings.
Freshman opposite Tanner Syftestad led UCSD in kills with just seven on the night, hitting .300 with a single error. Freshman libero Tyler Bird reached double figures in digs for a third straight match, with 11. He also contributed three assists.
CSUN tallied the first two points of the match and jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the early going before a Shayne Beamer ace brought the Tritons back to within one again at 11-10. UCSD came out of its second timeout and whittled a five-point deficit down to two, at 19-17, through a CSUN service error, Syftestad kill, and Beamer solo block on Brian O'Gorman. It was the first block by either side since a combo effort from O'Gorman and Bradley Sakaida on Ian Colbert on the opening point. The next two points went to the Matadors, however, and consecutive combo blocks put the score at 23-18 in favor of the home side before a triple block by Greg Faulkner, Sam Holt and Travis Magorien ended the set. CSUN committed five service errors to four by the Tritons. Faulkner was perfect with five kills on five swings.
Kirill Rudenko's kill on the first serve of the second gave UCSD its first advantage of the night. A four-point run later turned a 5-4 Triton edge into an 8-5 lead for the hosts. A Sakaida ace forced UCSD's first timeout, down 11-7. Another 4-0 run, with three Triton attack errors following a Damani Lenore kill, put CSUN in command for the duration at 18-11 as UCSD called its second timeout. The teams combined for 10 more service miscues in the second, with six by the Matadors. The Tritons managed just three kills.
UCSD got the first two points of the third on a stuff block by middle Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS) and freshman outside hitter Luke La Mont, followed by a La Mont kill. Another denial by Zhu and fellow redshirt freshman Calvin Manchenko moments later put the Tritons up 4-2. A bad serve and two bad attacks by the Matadors pushed it to a 10-6 UCSD lead as CSUN called for time. The home side gradually cut into what became a five-point deficit, getting it down to one at 16-15 after a Lenore ace. When Faulkner handled the overpass after Holt's serve, the score was level at 17-17.
The Matadors notched the next two points as well, both on Triton attack errors, to extend to a four-point run and take their first lead of the third set, 19-17. A kill and two aces in succession, all by Faulkner, gave CSUN all the cushion it needed at 22-18. A stuff block by Magorien and O'Gorman punctuated a second late 4-0 swing by the Matadors, with the sweep completed shortly thereafter.
“Heading into tonight's match, we felt like we had a pretty good game plan (against CSUN),” said UCSD head coach Kevin Ring. “They have two really good middles who are very physical, that they will set from along the net, and off the net. Their pin hitters are very physical. They hit high, hard and deep. We knew what we needed to do to attack them and get them out of system. Unfortunately, we were not as strong as we needed to be from the service line. I thought we served pretty well as far as getting the serve in, but we just didn't serve a tough enough ball to get them out of system consistently enough.
“What continues to be an issue for us, is the ability to go up and really challenge an attacker at the net. (We need to) put up some big hands, get our hands across the net, and get some stuff blocks. We ended up with five on the night. We got a couple in the third game there finally, but we definitely need to do a better job at the net, attacking and blocking. I thought we did enough on serve receive to keep us in it, but I would certainly like to get our middle blockers a few more sets.”
Zhu wound up with a team-high three block assists, with La Mont adding a pair, the first blocks of their respective college careers. La Mont added two kills.
Lenore and Holt led CSUN offensively with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Each player added four digs. Faulkner finished with nine kills at a .400 clip. O'Gorman had six total blocks to lead all players, and libero Nick Alegrado had a team-best six digs. Magorien compiled 35 assists, four total blocks and three digs.
By comparison to UCSD, CSUN hit .301. The teams ultimately combined to make 29 service errors, with the Matadors managing a match-high seven in the third set. They out-blocked the Tritons, 10.0-5.0.
The Tritons can now finally look toward their 2015 home opener, as they welcome No. 8 USC to RIMAC Arena on Thursday night, Jan. 22. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
“Moving forward, we've got two matches next week with USC and Cal Baptist,” concluded Ring. “We'll get back in the practice gym on Monday, and get prepared.”
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