SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The No. 14 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball team (5-1) looks forward to two home matches this week—Concordia University Irvine (4-2) on Wednesday and No. 12 Lewis (6-1) on Friday. This will be the last time the Gauchos host two home matches in the same week until the final week of the regular season against Hawai'i.
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos headed east last weekend for a two-match set at No. 10 Grand Canyon, Santa Barbara's first road and ranked opponent. Friday's match got people's attention, as the Gauchos comfortably swept the Lopes—25-16, 25-23, 25-19—and held them to just an .074 hitting percentage. On Saturday, the Gauchos fell behind in a two-set hole, but came back to force a fifth; however, they would ultimately fall 15-9 in the tiebreaking set. The split pushed UC Santa Barbara up two spots in the AVCA Coaches Poll, the most of any team.
The Gauchos' attack has been excellent to start the year, leading the country in kills per set (14.05) and assists per set (12.67).
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES
Last weekend against No. 1 Long Beach State at Walter Pyramid, CUI was swept but put up a valiant fight. The Golden Eagles came out swinging, just two points behind the top team in the country late in the first set before eventually falling 25-22.
Outside hitters Makua Marumoto and Ties Cornelissen naturally lead the team in kills with 47 and 42, respectively. Marumoto is a transfer from Hawai'i, where he was teammates with current Gaucho setter
Jack Walmer on the 2022 National Championship team. Colin Marks is the primary man setting up Marumoto now, leading CUI with 170 assists.
The Golden Eagles have done a great job so far in terms of blocks, earning 17 solos and 69 block assists, good for 51.5 total blocks and 2.34 blocks per set. Senior middle blocker Clement Osahon Jr. leads the way with 24 blocks.
SCOUTING THE FLYERS
A proud program, Lewis has finished in the top-four three times in the last decade, including 2021 when they advanced to the national semifinals on the opposite side of the bracket as UC Santa Barbara. Competing in NCAA Division II in most other sports, men's volleyball might be the premier program on the Romeoville, Illinois campus.
Friday's match in Rob Gym will be the Flyers' first road match of the season. Lewis has played some tough opponents already, though. Hosting No. 8 Penn State on Jan. 11, the Flyers easily swept the Nittany Lions 25-15, 25-15, 25-22. Like Concordia, Lewis also played Long Beach State, winning the first set before eventually losing the match 3-1, but losing two of those sets by the minimum two points.
Lewis has a great attack, second in the country—only behind the Gauchos—in kills per set (13.42) and assists per set (12.46). Individually, senior setter Tyler Morgan leads the country with 11.14 assists per set. Senior Max Roquet is another player to watch, as the outside hitter leads the team in kills (88), aces (9), and blocks (16), and is second in digs (43). Defending the opposite is a challenge, too, as Turkish international Oguzhan Oguz is right behind Roquet in basically all of those categories.
FOLLOW ALONG
Wednesday against CUI will begin at 7 p.m. in the Thunderdome. Friday's match against Lewis will be in Rob Gym, as mentioned, with first serve at 5 p.m. For those not attending, both matches will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats will be available at ucsbgauchos.com/MVBLiveStats.
