UCLA
UC Santa Barbara
Bruins Fall in Four to Gauchos in Wooden Center
February 27, 2013 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 27, 2013
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The third time was the charm for UC Santa Barbara.
The unranked Gauchos avenged two home defeats to sixth-ranked UCLA in a four-set victory at the John Wooden Center. Set scores were 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 25-19 in front of 574 fans in an hour and 45 minutes. UCLA, which had won convincingly last week on the road, fell to 11-9 overall and 7-7 in MPSF play. The Gauchos raised their record to 7-11. 5-9. The Bruins lead the all-time series 120-33.
After dropping the first set, the Bruins appeared to be on track when they evened the match at 1-1. UCLA rallied twice from three points down in the second set, finally tying the score at 18-18 and moving ahead by one when UCSB's Miles Evans committed consecutive hitting errors. The Gauchos called their first timeout of the set, but fell behind by three after a combo block by UCLA's Clayton Paullin and Spencer Rowe. The visitors called their second timeout and cut the margin to one on a kill by Austin Kingi and a block by Jake Staahl amd Kinji. A kill by Rowe and an ace by setter Steve O'Dell gave the Bruins a three-point cushion at 24-21. After O'Dell's service error on the next play, Rowe converted a kill and the Bruins had tied the match.
In Set 3, the Bruins overcame 11 three-point and five four-point deficits to tie the set at 23-23 on a kill by junior Gonzalo Quiroga. But the Gauchos quickly ended any threat by efficiently scoring the next two points on kills by Evans and Kinji.
In Set 4, the Bruins managed to tie the score three times, but never took the lead. UCSB broke the set open leading 9-8 when it scored three straight points to take a 12-8 lead. The Bruins never got closer than two points the rest of the set.
Quiroga had 11 kills, but he hit .152. Junior Robart Page, had 10 and was held to a .185 percentage. Rowe established a pair of career highs, recording 16 kills and 20 points, and he tied another with two aces.
After hitting better than .490 in their last two matches, the Bruins were held to an attack percentage of .223. The Bruins were also out-blocked, 11.5-7.0. UCLA served just four aces and committed 20 service errors.
Evan Licht led the Gauchos with 18 kills, followed by 12 from Evans and 10 from Kinji.
The Bruins will enjoy a week off before hosting Pacific on March 8 and Stanford on March 10.
