The young talent on the UC Santa Barbara women’s volleyball team showed Tuesday night that they can push the elite programs in the country.
The Gauchos gave undefeated and No. 2-ranked Stanford a battle in a four-set loss in their home opener at the Thunderdome. The scores were 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-15.
Redshirt freshmen outside hitters Eva Travis and Emma McDermott, opposite Lois Hansen and libero Cortni Youngblood and true freshman setter Harper Hall made big contributions for the Gauchos (2-5). Travis was the team’s top scorer (16 points) and kill leader (13), and added eight digs. McDermott had eight kills, Hansen delivered five kills and four block assists, and Youngblood kept rallies alive with seven digs.
“I think we really use our youth to an advantage, especially because (the opponents) have never seen a lot of these players before,” said senior middle Andi Kreiling, who had nine kills on a .500 hitting average, six blocks and scored 12 points. “For Eva to go out there, the same as every other pin (hitters) and every other freshman that doesn’t have a lot of experience, it was so cool to see them play with confidence and just no fear.
“We said before the game that we just need to believe; we don’t need to do anything fancy, we don’t need to be superheroes. We just need to do our best and I think we really showed that tonight.”
The Gauchos put together a stirring comeback in the third set, rallying from a 17-13 deficit. They did it with good passing, solid play at the net and in the back row and tough serving.
Middle Layanna Green, a redshirt junior transfer from Northern Iowa, sparked the rally with a block and a kill, off sophomore setter Milan Rex’s assist, to cut Stanford’s lead to 18-17.
After Sami Francis sided out for the Cardinal, the Gauchos tied the score at 19-19 on a Stanford service error and an ace by Sophie Reavis.
Ipar Kurt put Stanford back in front, but Travis equalized for UCSB, crushing a set from Hall to the floor.
“I think our biggest mentality going in there was like, they have everything to lose, we don’t. So, just go out there and have fun and play loose,” said Travis.
The Gauchos scored three more points on a hitting error, a block by McDermott and an ace by Green to go up 23-20. Kurt scored out of a timeout for Stanford, but UCSB answered with the final two points: a middle kill from Kreiling and a Stanford hitting error.
“Taking a set off the No. 2 team in the country, I do think that matters, especially in our first home match,” said UCSB coach Matt Jones. “It’s something we can build off of. We still have areas to tighten up, but, in general, the defense was pretty promising. Typically, a pretty efficient team that we just played, and to hold them to .200 (hitting percentage), we feel pretty good about that. I think our blocking, in particular, we did a lot of good things there and, as the match evolved, our back-row defense started to pair with that pretty nicely.
“To compete at that level and beat a team like that, we now just have to be more efficient turning those defensive plays into transition opportunities and actually producing points. And then we have to reduce some runs in serve receive.”
The Gauchos struggled with their serve receive early in the match. Jordyn Harvey gave them fits in the first set. Her tough serves helped the Cardinal open up an 8-3 advantage.
UCSB fought back behind the net play of Travis, McDermott and Kreiling. The Gauchos cut the deficit to two (17-15) before Kurt and Lizzy Andrew got hot for Stanford. Kurt served a pair of blistering aces to make it 24-20 and Harvey finished the set with a facial treatment on a defender.
“We’ve let a few sets get away from us earlier this year, so we’ve called a few timeouts earlier than I typically would just to try and kind of limit some of those runs and allow us to reset a little bit,”said Jones of Stanford’s tough service runs. “I think that has helped a few times. But part of it is after six rotations you’ve actually seen all the servers. Then it starts to get a little bit easier because you’ve seen the patterns a little bit more. You watch it on film but until you see it in person, it’s just a little bit different. Like (Ipar Kurt’s) serve, it was pretty gnarly, gnarlier than our film indicated. We didn’t realize she was putting that much heat on it.”
Down 13-7 in the second set, UCSB went on a three-point run to pull within two points (18-16). But the Gauchos lost momentum after they netted while hitting an overpass, and Stanford pulled away to the win and a 2-0 advantage.
The fourth set was tight until Stanford’s block took over. The Cardinal scored four points off blocks to expand their lead to 21-14.
Travis blocked for a point for the Gauchos before Stanford finished the match with four straight points on three kills and an ace serve off the tape.
Stanford (5-0) had three players score in double figures, led by Ipar with 15.5 points (11 kills, two aces). Outside hitter Elia Rubin had 14.5 points and a team-best 13 kills and Harvey had 14 points and 10 kills. Libero Elena Oglivie picked up 16 digs and setter Kami Miner had 11. The Cardinal hit. 208 as a team and held UCSB to a .143 hitting percentage.
Even though his team fell to 2-5, Jones is excited about the prospects of his young group.
“We believe in the team that we built. There’s a reason we redshirted most of this class, Eva’s class, because we believe in the impact they can have in this program into the future,” he said.
“You don’t go from where we are to being a top-five team overnight. It’s going to take time and it’s about doing things the right way and getting the right pieces in here and developing that talent over time. And we know we have talented pieces. It’s about continuing to develop that and create more consistent outcomes.”
The Gauchos head to Malibu to compete in the Asics Classic, hosted by Pepperdine University. They open against Omaha on Friday and then take on No. 1 Pitt on Saturday. The Panthers are coached by Dos Pueblos alum Dan Fisher.
