RIVERSIDE – Despite hitting a season-high .423 on Friday night at Van Dyne Gym, ninth-ranked UC Santa Barbara needed five sets to get past Cal Baptist in the last of a season-long four-match road trip.
Game scores for the match were 25-21, 29-31, 25-14, 22-25, 15-10.
Four different Gauchos reached the 10-kill mark for UCSB (7-2, 3-1 MPSF), helping the squad maintain its best start to a season since 2007. Junior outside hitter Jacob Delson and junior opposite Matt Marsh co-led the team with 17 kills apiece, followed closely by senior outside Austin Kingi’s 12 and freshman middle blocker Henri Cherry’s 10.
Cal Baptist (3-4, 0-4) had a strong showing of their own on their home floor, receiving a match-high 20 kills and five aces from Cody Jackson. The Lancers hit .296 on the night, including a blistering .514 clip in the second game.
For the second consecutive night, All-American setter Jonah Seif notched a season-high 54 assists, helping all five of the Gauchos’ starting attackers to hitting percentages over .300, including a near-flawless .833 mark for Cherri and a .429 clip for Kingi, highest among either teams’ outside hitters.
With 11, junior libero Parker Boehle set a new career-high in digs for the second time in 24 hours.