SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – No. 8 UC Santa Barbara hit .440 as a team on Saturday night, committing just seven attacking errors – tied for the fewest miscues by the team since the 2011 season – en route to a 3-0 sweep of No. 13 Stanford in the final contest of a four-match homestand at Rob Gym.

The win (25-14, 25-20, 25-19) improved UCSB's record to 6-4 overall with a 2-4 mark in conference play, while salvaging a .500 record on the spell at home (2-2). Stanford dropped to 3-6, 2-4.

The last time UCSB committed just seven errors was on Apr. 9, 2014 against Cal Baptist. It is only the third time in the past four seasons that the Gauchos have had fewer than 10 errant attacks in a match.

"You could definitely tell we gelled well as a team tonight," said UCSB head coach Rick McLaughlin. "We passed really well for the match which allowed Jonah some freedom to spread the ball around. We were very balanced offensively and its hard to stop an attack when it is getting contributions from everyone on the floor."

UCSB's standout pin hitters Jacob Delson and Kevin Donohue scored 11 kills apiece to pace all players, but it was the Gauchos' net-front players – setter Jonah Seif and middle blockers Ryan Hardy and Kevin Donohue – who helped the team to its second-highest attacking clip of the season.

The trio combined to record 13 kills with no errors on a paltry 15 swings for an .867 hitting percentage. Hardy was the most prolific of the three, finishing with seven kills, including three apiece in each of the match's first two games. Seif and Hardy both recorded kills on each of their three respective swings.

As their positional names suggest, the three have other roles to perform on the floor, where they excelled as well. Seif quarterbacked the UCSB attack, recording 32 assists while ripping another two service aces to give him a co-team-leading 12 on the year (Delson). Staahl and Delson recorded four blocks each to help double up the Cardinal at the net (8.0 team blocks to 4.0).

Seif's serving proved to be one of the key factors in UCSB's first-set domination. His ace on the second play helped the Gauchos establish an early lead, then later in the set his second ace capped off a 6-1 run that gave UCSB its biggest cushion yet at 12-7. From there, the teams more or less traded points until a Seif dump at 18-13 started a 7-1 run to close the set. The Gauchos' All-American setter served each of the game's final four points.

The Gauchos faced their first bit of adversity in the second game, when a small lead at the outset gave way to an 11-11 tie. On the next play, Hardy put down a quick set and then went to the service line, causing a Stanford attack error and then assisting on a Donohue kill to go ahead 14-11 and force a Cardinal timeout. UCSB created all the separation it would need later in the set when Staahl recorded consecutive double blocks (Delson contributed on the first, then Seif) and Delson found a seam with a back row attack to go up 19-15. Hardy would win the set with an ace serve off the tape.

Like the second, Stanford kept the third game close early until the Gauchos were able to pull ahead. In the final set, this came with the score tied 14-14 when a pair of Donohue kills bookended attacking errors from each team. On the next play, Delson and Hardy teamed up for a double-block of a Gabriel Vega attack that put the Gauchos up 18-15. That margin held steady until a Seif smash of an overpass kicked off a match-closing 5-0 run with Donohue at the service line. Though he had a quiet night statistically with five kills, redshirt senior outside hitter Weston Nielsen saved his best for last, attacking from the left side through the block for the match-winner.

Stanford was led by outside hitter Madison Hayden, the only Cardinal to reach double-figures with 10 kills. Middle blocker Conrad Kaminski had four kills to go along with team-bests of two aces and three blocks.

The Gauchos will now hit the road for their next three contests, starting this Wednesday, Feb. 4 at Cal State Northridge. They will also take on the Long Beach State 49ers on Friday, Feb. 6 before wrapping up the road swing at UCLA on Feb. 13.