Volleyball falls to UCSB, remains winless

In their 2016 home opener, the No. 15 Trojans played a close match against the No. 9 UCSB Gauchos. but lost in four sets, 22-25, 25-23, 22-25 and 23-25.

“I thought we finally put together some good stretches of volleyball, but we still have to be able to perform at every point from beginning to end,” said head coach Jeff Nygard.

In the first set, the Trojans fell behind 15-12 before working it back to 17-17 after a Tommy Leonard kill. Although he and outside hitter Lucas Yoder would both finish with four kills in the set, the momentum swung back to the Gauchos who would close out 25-22.

In the second set, despite dismal Gaucho hitting at .094, USC got off to an equally slow start and took a timeout to regroup after falling behind 9-6. Upon returning to the court, the Trojans fought for a 20-19 lead before a Gauchos’ timeout. Subsequently, four critical Gaucho errors down the stretch cost them the set which went to the Trojans, 25-23.

In the middle of the third set, Lucas Yoder caught fire, recording seven kills in the next sixteen match points. His effort did not keep the Trojans ahead as UCSB hit .500 in the set with 20 kills, including eight from junior opposite Matt Marsh whose impressive individual effort sparked a 10-7 Gaucho run to win the set 25-22.

Captain and senior outside hitter Alex Slaught liked the way his team played.

“If anything, we just need to close games,” he said.

Slaught pointed out that the Trojans “started playing a little hesitant in the long rallies” that gave the Gauchos unstoppable momentum in the fourth.

Though the Men of Troy opened the fourth fearlessly with an early 9-6 run, the Gauchos responded with a 5-1 run and never looked back, committing zero attack errors the rest of the way to close out the fourth and final set 25-23.

The Trojans fell behind at one point in all four sets and blew a five-point lead in the fourth, but Nygaard remains “encouraged by the fact that our guys are putting it together.”

One sign of this improvement was Josh Kirchner’s breakout performance highlighted by eight kills and a .571 hitting percentage. His game is a sign that the team is maturing incredibly quickly in the early season, and as Nygaard said, “raising the expectations has been part of what we’ve been doing.”

Saturday night the Trojans will need to defy expectations as they face crosstown rival UCLA for the first time since clinching an MPSF Tourney berth against them with a five-set victory at the Galen Center late last season. At that time, the Trojans were ranked No. 9 nationally and the Bruins were at No. 12, and while USC would finish the year at 19-9, UCLA would slide below .500 at 13-14.

This year, however, the table has turned. USC is off to a poor start while UCLA has ascended to No. 1 in the nation with a perfect 6-0 record including quality wins versus both Ohio St. and Penn St., top ten programs that conquered the Trojans early in January.

Indeed, the Trojans’ tumultuous start has left many questions unanswered. Understandably, they have struggled to fill the void left by graduating senior setter Micah Christenson, a two-time First-Team All-American, three-year team captain, and 4-year starter.

For sophomore setter Jack Yoder, the team is generating energy as a unit.

“We’re all super excited to get into Westwood and play [the Bruins],” Yoder said. “We have a lot to prove and this is a great opportunity for us.”

And for junior libero Vinnie Rios the team carries over enough experience from previous years to feel “comfortable” at Pauley.

“We’ve been playing against these guys for years now, so there’s nothing from this team we haven’t seen,” Rios said. “Rankings aside, we know what we have to do to win, so it’s just [a matter of] going and getting the job done.”

Nygaard, who was a star player for the Bruins, had one thing to say about returning to Pauley Pavilion.

“When I was there, my team learned how to win, and we intend to do the same,” Nygaard said.