UCSB (17-9, 8-5) continued to roll in the second half of the conference season, winning its fifth straight match over Cal State Fullerton 3-1 behind another career performance by Lindsey Ruddins, who led the way with a match and personal-best 27 kills to go along with 15 digs and a .411 hitting percentage. After letting the first set slip away late, the Gauchos were in complete control the rest of the way, holding the Titans to an average of just 15.67 points over the final three games.

"Fullerton played us really well and pushed us," Head Coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said. "It took us a little bit to kind of rise to that challenge, but fortunately we had Lindsey on fire."

Emilia Petrachi passed the 20-dig mark for the second straight match, tallying a match-high 21 digs for the night. Hannah Juley led all players with 47 assists and added 14 digs to earn her third double-double in her last four outings. She was also one of three Gauchos to finish with at least three aces.

Middle blockers Elizabeth Sheffield and Phoebe Grunt were the only other Gauchos to reach the 10-kill mark, ending the night with 11 and 10, respectively.

"Liz was doing pretty well and we got phoebe going too. We got some nice middle-to-pin combinations going," Lantagne Welch said. "I thought our passing was solid the entire night. Credit Emi, [Sydney Bast] and Lindsey for really holding down the fort on the passing end to allow us to be crisp enough to pull ahead later in the match."

The Gauchos continued to sizzle from the service lines, enjoying a 12-1 advantage in aces to tie a season-high. They also managed to hit at a .285 clip for the night, compared to .159 for Fullerton.

The first set seemed to be going UCSB's way after consecutive aces by Ruddins gave her team a 16-11 lead, but the Titans would fight back. Trailing 24-21, Fullerton survived three consecutive game points, going on a 4-0 run to take the lead at 25-24. After a Titan service error tied it at 25 apiece, Fullerton completed the surprising comeback, scoring the final point off a kill by Summer Kerins to win the first game 27-25.

After that, UCSB responded with perhaps its best start to a set all season, taking a quick 10-0 lead behind Juley's serving. A 9-2 Fullerton run would cut the Gauchos' lead to 17-23, but it was too little too late as the home side cleaned up to win the set 25-18 off a Ruddins kill.

"We kind of had that first set under control, and we stepped off the gas and let them come back," Lantagne Welch said. "We felt like we weren't clean late in that set and that came back to hurt us, so we got on them to challenge them and raise our level of play. We came out with a great service run from Hannah and that kind of set the tone for us the rest of the way."

Santa Barbara took its momentum into the third set, where it's defense held Fullerton to a match-low -.077 hitting percentage. The Gauchos found separation midway through the set, using a 5-0 run that included two aces by Juley and two kills by Grunt to put the home side up 12-7. UCSB would go on another 5-0 run soon after to take a 20-9 lead, marking the second straight game with a double-digit lead. Chloe Allen would earn the final point to make it 25-14, giving UCSB a 2-1 advantage.

The next game would follow a similar formula, with the Titans trailing by a slim 8-7 early on. Uninterested in playing past the fourth set, the Gauchos went on a 10-2 run behind three kills each from Ruddins and Sheffield to take a commanding 18-9 lead. UCSB would go on to score the final three points of the match, with Sydney Bast capping the night off with an ace to make it 25-15. Bast ended the night with six digs to go along with a career-high three aces.

Leading the way for the Titans were Shimen Fayad, who had a team-high 13 kills to go along with 11 digs.

The Gauchos will be back in action again Saturday night to play UC Riverside at 7:00 p.m.