The No. 12 UC Santa Barbara Men’s Volleyball team (3-7) continued with their East Coast road trip as they took on the Wildcats of Daemen University at the Harvard Invitational.

It was a battle between these two teams, but by the end of the match, it was Daemen who came out on top as UC Santa Barbara dropped this match in five sets with scores of 20-25, 26-28, 25-22, 25-19 and 14-16.

“It was a very close match, and unfortunately, we started slow again,” Gaucho head coach Rick McLaughlin said. “I thought we played the last three sets at a good level except for our serving. That’s something we really need to keep working on and improving at.

“Daemen was the better team in every aspect of the game, but I liked how our guys continued to fight.”

This first set started as a relatively even matchup as neither team could get ahead of the other by more than two points. That was until the end of the set.

The Wildcats went on numerous multi-point runs while the Gauchos couldn’t string anything together.

This ultimately kept UC Santa Barbara from getting the win as they dropped the first set 25-20.

From there, Daemen picked up where they left off. They started the set with a four-point lead before the Gauchos could rally back thanks to Ben Coordt at the service line and multiple attack errors by Daemen.

With the score tied at 8-8, the remainder of this second set looked very similar to the first as both teams vied for a lead.

The Gauchos and Wildcats needed extra points to decide the winner of this set, and unfortunately for UC Santa Barbara, it was their opponent who pulled out the win as the Blue and Gold lost the second set 28-26.

UC Santa Barbara needed to rally here, and that’s exactly what they did. They came out in dominating fashion in the third and fourth sets led by Rees Barnett and the nine kills he registered in that time.

The defense also showed up big for the Gauchos as they held the Wildcats to a .100 hitting percentage between those two sets.

All of that combined gave UC Santa Barbara the win in both of those sets with scores of 25-22 and 25-19, respectively, as this match went into a deciding fifth set.

The fifth set began with one team coming out hot, and unfortunately for the Gauchos, it was Daemen. They built a three-point lead early in the set that ultimately grew to five.

This didn’t keep UC Santa Barbara down. The Gaucho Grit shined as they battled back to tie this set, and again, going into extra points with the Wildcats.

Even with this valiant effort, the Blue and Gold ended up losing this set and the match with a score of 16-14.

Rees Barnett’s season debut was a stellar one. He led all players on the court in kills with 23. Along with that, he helped on defense with four digs and a block.

Ben Coordt had a good showing on the outside. He finished the match with a double-double, racking up 12 kills to go along with 10 digs. As if that wasn’t enough, he also contributed two aces.

Sam Meister was efficient in the middle for the Gauchos. He ended the day hitting at a .500 clip, securing eight kills and only one error on 14 swings.

He also added on to the team’s front-row defensive efforts with two blocks.

Greg Baglio had his season debut today as the team’s primary setter, notching 48 assists. He also was a force on defense, picking up eight digs and three blocks.

The Gauchos will have a quick turnaround as they play one more game at the Harvard Invitational as they take on the host team.

First serve will be at 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, Feb. 3. For those who won’t be in Cambridge, they can watch a live stream through ESPN+.Â