SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The No. 16 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball team (7-6) looks ahead to three matches this week, including two in the Thunderdome, against a pair of defending national champions—Division III Cal Lutheran (14-2) and No. 2 UCLA (8-3). The Gauchos host the Kingsmen on Tuesday before traveling to UCLA the following day. Then, the Gauchos welcome the Bruins to the Thunderdome on Friday night.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Last Thursday against Concordia University Irvine, the Gauchos got back in the win column with a 3-1 road victory—25-20, 25-19, 24-26, 25-21. Pin hitter Owen Loncar had his second consecutive night tallying a career-high in kills (now 16), as Ben Coordt had nine kills and nine digs with zero attack errors. As a team, Santa Barbara nearly doubled their previous match-high of 9.5 blocks, earning 17.5 against the Golden Eagles.
 
The Gauchos defeated both Cal Lutheran and UCLA in 2024. The Kingsmen won the first set and took the second and third to extra points, but the Gauchos ultimately prevailed 3-1 in Thousand Oaks. At Pauley Pavilion, Sam Collins' walk-off ace completed the Gauchos' classic five-set upset over the Bruins, with every set being decided by the minimum two points.
 
SCOUTING THE KINGSMEN
Currently ranked eighth in Division III, Cal Lutheran has had an impressive 14-2 start to their season and is on a four-match winning streak. Head coach Kevin Judd, who guided the team to last year's National Championship, is the first and only head coach of the program since its revitalization in 2016.
 
The Kingsmen attack runs through graduates Jordan Cooper and Michael Stahl, who have tallied 207 and 196 kills, respectively. Stahl has the team-lead with 3.63 kills per set, while Cooper's 21 aces lead the team.
 
Defensively, libero Braden Gonzales—who was teammates with Owen Birg at Thousand Oaks High—leads the team in digs with 174, good for 2.76 per set. Cal Lutheran also has a strong block, averaging 2.27 blocks per set; 6-foot-10 senior Borys Horiuk leads the way with 53 total blocks on the year.
 
SCOUTING THE BRUINS
The Bruins have had as tough a schedule as any team, playing 10 of their 11 matches against ranked opponents. Their past four matches were even more brutal, beginning by winning only one set in their two-match series against No. 1 Long Beach State. Then, last week, the Bruins were unfazed, bouncing back to sweep then-No. 2 UC Irvine on the road and win 3-2 at home.
 
Middle blocker Cameron Thorne tore UC Irvine apart in both matches; on Wednesday, he had 15 kills on 19 attempts before having an even better 17 kills on 19 attempts in the rematch. On the season, outside hitters Cooper Robinson and Zach Rama have accounted for over half of the team's kills with 132 (3.30 per set) and 122 (3.13 per set), respectively. All-American setter Andrew Rowan is the main man teeing them up.
 
The Gauchos-Bruins matchup is one of the most, if not the most, played matchups in collegiate men's volleyball history. The NCAA elevated men's volleyball to a championship sport in 1970, and the teams met in each of first three national championship tournaments. UC Santa Barbara and UCLA were both members of the old SCIVA, CIVA, WIVA, and MPSF conferences until the Big West sponsored men's volleyball in 2018. This is at least the 142nd meeting between the programs.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
The home matches—against Cal Lutheran on Tuesday and UCLA on Friday—will both be streamed on ESPN+. For those not making the trip to Westwood, the Wednesday match at UCLA will be streamed on B1G+. First serve for all matches is at 7 p.m. with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com/MVBLiveStats.