SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The No. 18 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball team (11-13, 2-5 Big West) dropped a tough five-setter at home on Thursday night to No. 5 UC Irvine (17-6, 3-4 Big West). The Gauchos will look back on four match points in the fourth set that would have sealed the upset, yet are forced to stomach a 25-19, 17-25, 19-25, 30-28, 15-12 Anteater victory.
 
Freshman George Bruening had the best match of his young career, tallying 26 kills, hitting .417, and serving three aces. Fellow freshman Ethan Saint did the same, earning his first double-digit kill performance (14) while hitting .333 and serving two aces.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
In the first set, UC Irvine showed why they are a top-five team in the country. Santa Barbara native Micah Goss served an ace as part of a 3-0 run, taking a 7-3 lead. The Gauchos countered with a 3-0 run of their own a bit later, but that was followed by a 4-0 Irvine run to 13-7. Steadily, Santa Barbara shrunk the deficit to 20-18, but the Anteaters would win five of the next six points to take the set 25-19. The visitors hit an astounding .750 (15-0-20) without a single attack error in the opening frame.
 
To start the second, the Gauchos flipped the momentum completely, playing confident volleyball. Ben Pearson went on a 4-0 serving run—after he had an ace and multiple serves resulting in Irvine overpasses in the first set—to give Santa Barbara a dominant 8-2 start. Cruising the rest of the way, the Gauchos never let their advantage get closer than four points on the way to a 25-17 victory. George Bruening came into the night on a four-match double-digit kill streak, and he had already eclipsed 10 midway through the second set.
 
The third set was nearly a carbon copy of the second. Santa Barbara stunned Irvine, taking an early 7-2 advantage. A 3-0 run, in which Bruening had a solo block and an ace on consecutive points, ballooned the lead to 12-4. Ethan Saint served an ace to make it 14-5 before Irvine would fight back with a 6-1 run; 17-9 turned into 18-15 for the Gauchos. However, the hosts would win four of the next five to reestablish a six-point lead, then played the sideout game to a 25-19 win. Santa Barbara hit a blistering .481 in the set (14-1-27), their best of the match.
 
In each of the first three sets, the only ties happened at 0-0 and 1-1. In the fourth set, 21 different ties occurred. Down 10-8, the Gauchos rattled off four in a row—two Bruening kills, a Pearson kill, and Cole Schobel ace—to take a brief 12-10 lead. A bit later, a block by Schobel and sub Sam Meister gave the Gauchos a 17-15 lead. At 20-20, Pearson and Owen Birg earned back-to-back kills to really put Irvine's backs against the wall, the Gauchos three points from victory. Back-to-back Santa Barbara service and set errors immediately re-tied the score at 22, but a Bruening-Saint double block gave the Gauchos the lead back. The teams traded the next nine points, which included four Santa Barbara match points, until Irvine broke the pattern to serve their own set point. A Bruening kill re-tied it at 28, but the Anteaters would win the next two to take a dramatic, extra-point fourth set at 30-28.
 
So, the teams reset for a winner-take-all fifth. After an even 5-5 start, Irvine took a 7-5 lead on consecutive kills. It was a lead they would ultimately never relinquish. The Gauchos hung with them point-for-point until Irvine won two in a row to take a three-point lead at 13-10. Then, down 14-11, Saint's kill extended the match at least for one more point. The Gauchos thought they had made it 14-13, one point away from tying the score, but the original decision of an Irvine attack error was reversed as the ball was deemed to be in after a lengthy challenge. Thus, the Anteaters pulled off a comeback victory with a 15-12 fifth set win.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• George Bruening not only extended his streak of 10+ kills to five matches, but nearly doubled his career high. Prior to the 26 in this match, it was 14 kills at BYU on February 7. He also served three aces—another career high—and led the team with three total blocks.
• Ethan Saint similarly had career highs in kills (14), aces (two) and digs (six). Mostly used as a serving sub throughout this season, the freshman made the most with his opportunity in the starting lineup against a top-five team.
• Really, the offense as a whole was solid. Ben Pearson had eight kills on 17 swings (.294), while middle blockers Owen Birg (7-2-12, .417) and Sam Meister (6-1-9, .556) hit well in limited swings.
• Even setter Cole Schobel earned five kills on an errorless 10 swings (.500), while setting up his teammates for 49 assists. He also served two aces and had 10 digs, one better than Pearson's nine to lead the team.
• The Gauchos team hitting percentage of .388 is the fifth highest of the season. However, this match is arguably the most impressive, as two of the matches where they hit better came in January and the other two were against Division III Cal Lutheran.

 
UP NEXT
Thankfully, the Gauchos have a chance to avenge this loss after a day off. The teams are set for a rematch in Irvine's Bren Events Center on Saturday at 6 p.m. As usual, the match can be streamed on ESPN+ with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com/MVBLiveStats.