SANTA BARBARA, Calif.— No. 3 UC Santa Barbara took its first loss of the season Thursday night falling to No. 1 Hawai'i in four sets (16-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-20) to open up Big West play. This snaps a 12-match win streak for the Gauchos that dated back to last season and is just the program's third loss since 2019.

After hitting an outstanding .545 as a team in the set one win, the UH defense found its rhythm and capitalized on a season-worst 17 service errors by the Gauchos to take the next three sets.

Reigning AVCA Player of the Week Randy DeWeese posted a match-high 21 kills to go along with eight digs and a block. Casey McGarry collected his first double-double of the season with a match-high 43 assists and a team-best 10 digs. Roy McFarland posted his best mark of the season with 15 kills of his own.

The Gauchos came out firing in the first set holding the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors to their lowest scoring set of the season with just 16 points, and their worst hitting performance at .103. UCSB led by as much nine after breaking away from the early 6-6 tie and used a 5-1 run to propel itself ahead.

Set two saw UH settle in and take a lead in the middle of the set going up 14-10. The visitors would parlay that into a 20-14 lead that it would not relinquish, tying the overall match at a set apiece. The Gauchos fought but were ultimately plagued by six service errors.

The Bows kept that momentum going in the third, jumping out to a 4-0 lead, but UCSB quickly repaid the favor scoring five straight to flip the script. The two Big West titans would meet again at 17-17, with Hawai'i posting an 8-3 run to close out the set and take the overall lead 2-1.

With their backs against the wall, the Gauchos fought hard down 13-10 collecting a 5-0 run to regain the lead and force a Hawai'i timeout. Unfortunately for UCSB, the timeout would help UH straighten out and get on a match-ending 12-5 run. Santa Barbara cut the lead to as little as two at 20-18 but could not prevail seeing its worst hitting performance in any set this year with a .075 team hitting percentage with 10 errors.

The Gauchos will look to bounce back tomorrow night in their second conference matchup with the Rainbow Warriors.