No. 8 UC Santa Barbara knocked out their second win this week at Rob Gym, defeating No. 15 Cal Baptist in three sets, 25-20, 25-16, 25-20. Their second consecutive sweep brought them to 13-6 overall, and 9-5 in conference play.
UCSB put up incredible numbers against the Lancers, with four players picking up over .400 clips and the team hitting .461 overall. Senior outside Austin Kingi put up 12 kills in three games, producing a .455 clip. Senior setter Jonah Seif, in addition to his 35 assists, hit .500 with three kills; he also shut down the Cal Baptist defense with two service aces.
“It was nice getting two sweeps this week so we could get some more momentum before playing UCLA next week. Our mentality coming in was to find a rhythm with the hitters and win the serve receive battle,” said Kingi.
It was also a big night for the new class of Gauchos. Freshman right side Corey Chavers and middle Henri Cherry had a combined 17 kills (10 and 7) with .412 and .778 clips respectively. Both were also consistent serving presences, with Chavers grabbing two service aces of his own.