SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The No. 14 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball (2-3) returned to Rob Gymnasium as they were ready to take on the No. 8 Stanford University Cardinal. Although the Gauchos fought to come out with the win, they fell short yet again as the Cardinal left Santa Barbara with the 3-1 win (22-25, 26-24, 23-25, 21-25).
 
FROM HEAD COACH RICK MCLAUGHLIN
"We played better tonight and I was happy with our effort. But Stanford played better, too. Their experience won the match as they made the key plays when necessary. We improved, but we just have to keep working hard and getting better."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Just like yesterday, the Cardinal started out with the early lead, but not without the Gauchos staying close behind. UC Santa Barbara and Stanford alternated points five times before the Cardinal pulled ahead. It started with a two-point advantage before it grew to four. Even though the Gauchos tried to bounce back with kills from Geste Bianchi and Sam Meister, it wasn't enough as UC Santa Barbara dropped the first set 22-25.
 
The Gauchos came out strong in the second set. With two straight aces from Bianchi and back-to-back kills from Josh Aruya, UC Santa Barbara built a small lead over the Cardinal. That was until Stanford went on their own run to tie things up. Again, neither team could pull ahead of the other until Stanford grabbed a two-point lead. With the score at 22-24, the Gauchos needed to figure out how to win this set. Well, the answer ended up being three Cardinal attack errors and an ace from Sam Collins. All of that together gave UC Santa Barbara the second set with a score of 26-24.
 
The third set did not start in favor of the Gauchos as the Cardinal came out swinging, going up by six early on in this set. With the whole team rallying together, UC Santa Barbara slowly started to make a comeback, tying the score at 20-20. At this point, one team just needed to score five points, and unfortunately for the home team, it was Stanford who completed that task. UC Santa Barbara dropped the third set 23-25.
 
With the match on the line, the Gauchos needed to retaliate. This set started off slow with these teams exchanging points, but it didn't take long for one to pull ahead, and that team was Stanford. No matter what the Gauchos tried, they couldn't seem to close the gap between them and their opponent. This resulted in UC Santa Barbara dropping this fourth and final set to Stanford 21-25.
 
LOOKING AT THE NUMBERS

• Geste Bianchi has been the biggest offensive weapon so far for the Gauchos, and that continued tonight. He notched 21 kills while adding on an impressive four aces.
• Ben Coordt was the other Gaucho to finish with double-digit kills as he tallied 11 in this match. He also contributed 10 digs for his first career double-double.
• Patrick Kane contributed heavily to the team's defensive efforts as he was tied for the most digs on the team with 10. He also helped out on offense with eight kills.
• Jack Walmer was the playmaker for the Gauchos. He finished this match with 46 assists while adding onto the defensive efforts with eight digs.  

UP NEXT
The Gauchos will be back in Rob Gymnasium on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19 and 20, as they welcome the No. 9 BYU Cougars. First serve will be at 6 p.m. both nights with live streams available through ESPN+.