SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The No. 18 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball team (11-14, 2-6 Big West) enters the final weekend of the regular season, hosting No. 3 Hawai'i (23-4, 6-2 Big West) on both Friday and Saturday night. The Gauchos will celebrate Senior Night before Saturday's match, honoring seven seniors—Geste Bianchi, Owen Birg, Jack Walmer, Ben Coordt, Max Gordon, Sam Meister, and Patrick Kane.
 
LAST TIME OUT
In the ever-competitive Big West, the Gauchos played two against current-No. 4 UC Irvine last week. In Thursday's match in the Thunderdome, the Gauchos had a big chance at an upset with four match points in the fourth set. The Anteaters would end up coming back to win the match in five sets before a sweep in Irvine on Saturday.
 
LOOKING AT THE GAUCHOS
Freshman pin hitter George Bruening was phenomenal in Thursday's match against Irvine, racking up a career-high 26 kills and leading the team with three aces and three blocks. A top recruit out of high school, he has proven his talent when healthy this season. In Big West play, his 3.37 kills per set and 3.88 points per set both rank sixth in the conference leaderboards.
 
Senior opposite Geste Bianchi returned to the starting lineup for Saturday's road match after missing the previous three contests. With 11 kills in the three sets, he has continued his ridiculous stats of 4.84 kills per set and 5.36 points per set in a small sample size.
 
Ethan Saint and Ben Pearson both found themselves in the starting lineup at home, replacing injured outside hitter Riggs Guy. Saint earned 14 kills with a .333 hitting percentage and tallied six digs. Pearson had eight kills, hitting .294, and nine digs. As a substitute, middle blocker Sam Meister hit .556 (6-1-9) with a block playing parts of four sets. So, it will be interesting to see the Gauchos' starting lineup come Friday night.
 
SCOUTING THE RAINBOW WARRIORS
Hawai'i is coming off an electric weekend in their home Stan Sheriff Center. With a capacity of 10,300, they hosted sellouts on both Friday and Saturday nights against No. 1 Long Beach State. After dropping the first match 3-1, the Rainbow Warriors won a dramatic five-setter on Saturday thanks to a 15-13 fifth set victory.
 
Tread Rosenthal was named last year's Big West Freshman of the Year and has taken a stride forward this season. Proving himself as one of the best setters in the country, the Mira Costa graduate comes into the week at fourth in the country in assists per set (10.72). He has guided the Rainbow Warriors to the nation's fifth-best hitting percentage (.349) and second-best assists per set (12.42) and kills per set (13.34) marks.
 
Opposite Kristian Titriyski won AVCA Player of the Week earlier this season, but missed both of the matches against Long Beach. No worries for the Rainbow Warriors, though, as their attacking depth was on full display over the weekend. Freshman Finn Kearney entered the starting lineup and led the team with 17 kills in both matches. Frenchman Louis Sakanoko had their match-winning kill on Saturday, and middle blocker Kurt Nusterer celebrated his Senior Night with a career-high 10 kills on an errorless 12 swings (.833).
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Both matches are scheduled for 7 p.m., with Senior Night festivities expected to push first serve on Saturday's match back a few minutes. For fans not attending, both matches can be streamed on ESPN+ and listened to on ESPN Honolulu. Live stats will be available as always at ucsbgauchos.com/MVBLiveStats.