No. 10 UC Santa Barbara put an end to a pair of losing streaks on Wednesday night, sweeping No. 12 UC Irvine 25-17, 26-24, 25-17 at Rob Gym.
The victory snapped a mini-skid for the Gauchos (9-5, 5-4 in MPSF play), who entered the match on a three-match losing streak. It was also the first win over UC Irvine for the program since 2010, a span of 10 matches.
The struggling Anteaters dipped to 3-8, 2-7 on the season.
“I thought our guys did a really good job of moving on to the next play and limiting service runs from the opponent,” said UCSB head coach Rick McLaughlin. “We were consistent from the service line, which kept pressure on them to make plays. Our offense was evenly spread, so that combined with good passing caused issues for UC Irvine’s block.”
UCSB’s offense was led Wednesday by senior outside hitter Austin Kingi, who had team highs with 10 kills and two aces on .450 hitting.
“It’s good to have Austin in a leadership role out there,” said McLaughlin. “When he’s playing consistent and doing things behind the scenes, it raises the level of our team. I thought he did a good job of that tonight.”