In the first match of a key Big West home stand, Tasia Farmer turned into a one-player wrecking crew for the UC Santa Barbara women’s volleyball team.
Farmer made certain the Gauchos won the first of their back-to-back home matches with the conference’s upper-echelon teams on Thursday at the Thunderdome. She blasted a match- and career-high 18 kills on 24 swings, added two block assists and accounted for 19 points in a 25-17, 25-19, 25-20 sweep of Cal Poly.
Keep having a night, Tasia!#GoGauchos pic.twitter.com/K0UXPBzITu
— UC Santa Barbara Women's Volleyball (@UCSB_Volleyball) October 13, 2023
The impressive win keeps UCSB alone in first place in the Big West at 7-0 and raises the team’s overall record to 17-2. Cal Poly fell to 5-2 in conference at 11-8 overall.
Next up is reigning conference champion Hawai’i (5-1, 12-5) on Friday.
Farmer made her presence felt right from the start on Thursday. Her first attack bounced off the floor for a 3-0 lead. She added two more kills on a tip and a blast, helping the Gauchos open up an 8-3 lead in the Blue-Green Rivalry match.
After Cal Poly cut the deficit to 11-10, Farmer put away a quick set from Grace McIntosh to cap 3-0 run and return the momentum to UCSB’s side of the court.
In the second set, Farmer and middles Andi Kreiling and Grace Wuischpard took charge at the net, leading the Gauchos to an 11-1 lead.
While admitting his mind was more on team-specific stuff during the match, UCSB coach Matt Jones realized Farmer was going off.
“I knew Tasia was having a nice night. I didn’t know it was this nice,” he said as he glanced at the match stats. “Yes, it’s pretty stupid — six kills a set and hitting .670… Hopefully you can do that some more tomorrow (against Hawai’i).
Jones like seeing Farmer taking charge.
“I think she made good choices, first of all,” he said. “I thought she got great sets from Grace McIntosh; I thought our middles were so effective that it made it hard for (Cal Poly’s block) to close to the right side. And, sometimes you also just get some balls that break your way.
“There were some weird swings you took from 10 feet off to score anyway,” he told Farmer. “Sometimes that happens. So, all-around, a really nice night for Tasia for sure.”
Farmer gave Cal Poly defenders a different look almost every time she went on the attack.
“I was scoring and being aggressive but I also wanted to open up a little bit more,” said the senior outside hitter. “I felt like their middles were starting to cheat my way, so in order for me to (handle) that, I felt like I had to mix it up and not just hit hard every single time.”
The UCSB middles of Wuischpard (2 solo blocks, 5 total blocks) and Kreiling (9 kills, 3 solo blocks, 4 total) were in constant motion as they swopped from side to side to contain Cal Poly’s potent attack. Tommi Stockham, the team’s leading hitter, was held to 11 kills on 28 swings, with most of those kills coming early in the match. Lizzy Markovska had 10 kills from the outside.
Cal Poly hit .152 as a team compared to UCSB’s hitting average of .340.
“We work a lot in practice in getting our hands over the net fast,” said Wuischpard. “And, going against our fast offense, it’s really nice to go into a game and be able to do the same thing. The coaching staff has done a great job on helping me and Andi work on our hand path over the net to be able to stop the other side. That really showed tonight in our defense, blocking-wise.”
“Outside, in particular, we were pretty solid with our block,” said Jones. “I think we had one or two (net calls) but outside of that I thought we presented really nice hands. We made life hard on Stockham and for Markovska as well. They still got their kills and they were decent efficient but not crazy efficient.”
Another big part of UCSB’s win on Thursday was how it responded after Cal Poly went on scoring runs.
In the third set, the Mustangs roared back from a 20-10 deficit and pulled to within four, 22-18. But the Gauchos regrouped after a sideout kill from Sophie Reavis.
Cal Poly tipped a ball out bounds to put UCSB at match point, and the Gauchos finished things off with a kill from Brianna McKnight, who finished with eight kills.
