SANTA BARBARA, Calif.— No. 3 UC Santa Barbara men's volleyball clinched second place in the Big West and secured a first-round bye in next week's conference tournament with another 3-0 sweeping of No. 13 UC San Diego Saturday night. The Gauchos closed out the regular season earning their eighth sweep 25-23, 25-16, 25-18.

The Gauchos end the regular season with a 13-4 overall record with a 7-3 Big West mark while the Tritons end at 3-12 and 3-7. This is highest finish 

UCSB made the most of every offensive opportunity in its final night at Robertson Gym, as the team only committed six attacking errors and finished the night with a .397 hitting percentage. The hosts also found seven total blocks at the net, five of which saw contributions from Keenan Sanders as he tied his season-high in block assists. 

Senior Henry Hancock erupted for a match-best and new career-high 11 kills in the regular season finale hitting a potent 11-2-19 for a .474 clip. He also scooped up six digs. Behind him was Ryan Wilcox who saw a nearly identical line of 10-1-19 for the same percentage of .474. Wilcox led all players with nine digs. 

The two teams traded punches in the early going with the Tritons posting a 4-0 run just before seeing the Gauchos return the favor with a 4-0 run of their own to take a 10-8 lead. From there the Gauchos ran away with it jumping out to as much as a six-point lead, but the visitors refused to go away cutting it to as close as 24-23. A double block from Sanders and Donovan Todorov would seal the first game for UCSB 25-23. 

UCSB held UCSD to a match low .190 hitting percentage and thus the Gauchos' breakaway from the Tritons came a bit earlier in set two. After seeing three lead changes in the first game, none were made in the second as the Gauchos controlled throughout with the biggest lead of nine coming at the end 25-16.

The third and final set was a similar story as after the two teams went back and forth through the early points, the nation's third-ranked team eventually began to pull away once again. Up 13-11, the Gauchos notched five straight to get to 18-11 and never looked back. 

UC Santa Barbara will ride its eight-match win streak into the postseason.