PROVO, Utah – The No. 15 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball team (6-3) dropped three close sets at No. 6 BYU (7-4) on Friday evening—25-21, 25-20, 25-22. Redshirt freshman George Bruening had a career night in his young Gaucho tenure, leading the team with seven digs and 14 kills, hitting a blistering .476.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Early mistakes hurt the Gauchos in the first set. By the time BYU held a 10-7 lead, seven of the hosts' 10 points came via Santa Barbara service or attack errors. BYU's star player, Keoni Thiim, had a kill and an ace into the media timeout to give the Cougars a 15-10 lead. Disaster struck for the Gauchos after the next point, as Geste Bianchi exited with an injury. UC Santa Barbara continued fighting, getting as close as 20-18 BYU, but ultimately fell 25-21. Riggs Guy had six kills in the opening set.
 
To start the second, the teams traded points to a 9-9 tie. The Cougars then won their 10th and 11th points and would never relinquish their lead thereafter. It was unconvincing, though, as from 11-9 to 19-16, BYU committed four service errors. Guy's kill immediately following brought the Gauchos within two at 19-17, but BYU would win four of the next five points to pull away and eventually win 25-20.
 
In set three, Santa Barbara began with a 2-0 advantage before a 6-1 BYU run gave the Cougars an early lead. Similar to the previous two sets, BYU would keep their lead the entirety of the rest of the set, but the Gauchos hung around closely. Down 12-8, the Gauchos battled but could not turn the tide against a strong BYU squad. If Santa Barbara earned a point, BYU would follow with a point. If Santa Barbara got two in a row, BYU followed with two in a row. This pattern repeated itself until a Bruening kill, Bruening and Owen Birg block, and Owen Loncar kill won three out of four points to make it 23-20 Cougars. However, a BYU kill ended the set, and match, with a 25-22 victory.

BY THE NUMBERS

• After sitting out the two matches last week, George Bruening was a bright spot for the Gauchos. Against a top-six team in the nation, he had the aforementioned 14 kills and just four errors on 21 swings. Defensively, his seven digs were tied for the team lead with Joe Wallace.
• Owen Birg was solid, hitting an efficient three kills on seven swings with no errors. Like usual, he led the team in blocks with three. Birg was the only Gaucho starter without a service error.
• Serving troubles hurt the Gauchos tonight. Besides Birg and Geste Bianchi—who left the match early due to injury—five other Gauchos each had a minimum of three service errors, combining for 21 total.

 
UP NEXT
Thankfully, UC Santa Barbara and the Cougars are right back at it tomorrow at the same time, 6 p.m. PT, at Smith Fieldhouse. Fans not in Provo can watch on B1G+ and follow along via live stats on ucsbgauchos.com/MVBLiveStats.