Geste Bianchi became the go-to guy for the UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball team in its season-opener on Thursday.
The lefty 6-foot-6 redshirt junior put away 21 kills and posted an eye-popping hitting percentage of .531 (4 errors on 32 swings), leading the Gauchos to a 27-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-19 win over New Jersey Institute of Technology in the first match of UCSB’s annual season-starting Asics Invitational at Rob Gym.
The Gauchos continue Asics Invite competition against George Mason on Friday at 4:30 p.m. and Grand Canyon on Saturday at 7 p.m. Also competing are Big West teams Cal State Northridge and UC San Diego.
Bianchi took charge right away, blasting five kills with no errors in the first set. And the Gauchos needed every kill to overcome 11 service errors.
He really got it going in the third and fourth sets, when the Gauchos started taking control of the match. In the third set, a kill off a feed from Jack Walmer started a 5-0 run to break an 8-8 tie. Middle Sam Meister (Santa Barbara High alum) followed with a solo block and Bianchi struck again off a nice back set from Walmer, who finished with 43 assists.
Ben Coordt served an ace before NJIT called a timeout. Out of the break, Meister blocked a ball and converted the play into a kill for a 12-8 advantage.
The Gauchos expanded their lead to 22-13 on a combination block from Bianchi and Meister.
Bianchi was nearly unstoppable in the fourth set, notching eight kills on nine swings, while adding a service ace and a dig. His stat line included six digs, five block assists and two aces which resulted in a match-best 25.5 points.
“He’s was the man,” said UCSB coach Rick McLaughlin of Bianchi’s performance.
The .531 hitting percentage is a career-high, passing his previous best of .480, with 15 kills, against Long Beach State in 2022. The 21 kills are the second most in his Gaucho career; he had 26 in a five-set loss at Stanford last season.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Bianchi, who attended Laguna Beach High and Orange Coast College and played with many of his Gaucho teammates on the Balboa Bay Club. “We kind of started off slow there but we then got into it pretty fast, started making our serves and stuff.”
He gave props to Walmer for his big night.
“I feel like our setter Walmer was just feeling it out and I was working, so he just kept coming back.”
Walmer and Bianchi helped the Gauchos go on a 7-2 run to take a 17-12 lead in the fourth set. Walmer scored on a roll shot after UCSB picked up a NJIT block and Bianchi recorded up a kill that was set up by a tough serve by Meister.
After the Highlanders scored the next two points, Bianchi sided out on a Walmer back set and Walmer then unleashed three aces.
Bianchi finished the match with his 21st kill.
Coordt added 11 kills and 12.5 points, 6-foot-9 true freshman Josh Aruya contributed eight kills and 12 points in the middle, George Bruening had eight kills on the outside and Meister chipped in five put-aways from the middle.
Will Migdal and Josh Gregg led NJIT with nine kills apiece and scored 12 and 10.5 points, respectively.
UCSB hit .440 as a team and NJIT hit .233.
NJIT is a member of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. The Highlanders were picked fourth in the coaches’ preseason poll behind Penn State, Princeton and George Mason.
UCSB was picked to finish fourth in the Big West behind Long Beach State, Hawai’i and UC Irvine.
The start of Thursday’s matinee match was a little rough for the Gauchos. They committed 11 of their 23 service errors in the first set and still managed to pull out a win.
In the second set, Will Migdal — the only Californian on the NJIT roster — sparked a three-point run with a kill and an ace for a 16-13 Highlander lead. NJIT led 23-19 before errors and a couple of kills from Bianchi brought the Gauchos back to within one, 24-23. But the UCSB comeback was spoiled by a service error, leveling the match at 1-1.
“We were kind of shaking off the rust,” said McLaughlin, who for the first time in his 16 years at the helm doesn’t have a senior on the roster. “We missed a lot of serves in the first game, got better at that as we went, got better at not giving up runs as we went, and this guy (Bianchi) carried us for a while.”
