SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – For their first home match of October, the UC Santa Barbara Women's Volleyball team took a 3-0 win over Cal State Fullerton. The Thunderdome featured the Gauchos' swift win over the Titans, which was orchestrated by the entire team.

"It was a great team win," said Head Coach Matt Jones. "Everyone did really well."

The Gauchos are now 24-0 against Fullerton since 2012. 14 of those wins are sweeps.

Santa Barbara came right out of the gate with a 25-16 win in the first. The Gauchos took no time to establish their dominance, shutting the Titans down like they would proceed to do for the rest of the match. 

By the mid-second, Santa Barbara was hitting .390 to Fullerton's -0.024. They made quicker work of this set, speedrunning it 25-12. For the first time this season, UC Santa Barbara had a 100% sideout rate in a set. The team went 13 for 13 in sideouts during the second, as Fullerton never made more than one point in a row.

Finally, Santa Barbara had the third and final set at 25-11, with Gabi Martinez hammering the nail in the coffin. The Gauchos saw a ten-point lead at 15-5 after making eight of a nine-point batch. They proceeded to claim an additional ten points to bring their 2025 conference record to 5-2.

Over the entire course of the match, the Titans never led and only ever managed two ties (1-1 and 2-2 in the second set). The Gauchos' court featured many of their players, and the team was able to claim the win as a whole. They had their second-highest team hitting percentage of the season at .369.

It was showtime for Layanna Green, whose indefensible hits had her going eight for nine after the first two sets. She finished the match with an .889 hit percentage. She is currently ranked eighth in the country for hitting percentage, and her performance tonight is exactly why.

The Gauchos made a magnificent 13 blocks, adding them to their running count of 182.5 total blocks that put them at 7th in the NCAA for the stat.

NEXT UP
The Gauchos will host UC Irvine tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 17 at 7:00 p.m. The match will partner with the Dig Pink organization to recognize and raise awareness for metastatic breast cancer.