SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The near-400-person crowd that filled the intimate confines of Rob Gym to watch the No. 15 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball team take on No. 8 BYU had plenty of reason to shake the floorboards of that venerable arena, as the Gauchos went toe-to-toe with the Cougars. Though the visitors won all three sets, Santa Barbara was within three of winning the first and only lost the third after some close calls went the Cougars' direction. Riggs Guy finished with a match-high 13 kills, with George Bruening adding 10 for the Blue and Gold.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams traded blows both figuratively and literally in the first set, with neither team ever more than four points from the other thanks to some real heavy swings. Guy and Josh Aruya were the ones delivering haymakers for the Gauchos in the opening frame, with Aruya's first kill of the match nearly denting the court. But what really kept Santa Barbara in the mix in the first set was their ability to roll with the punches; the Gauchos won a couple of long rallies, including one that Guy's diving save kept alive and Aruya's block finished off. That play made the score 15-13, Santa Barbara trailing by two, midway through proceedings. Later on, BYU errors allowed the Gauchos to get back within two after being down 22-18, but they only fended off two set points before the Cougars won the 25-22 decision.
 
The second set was less prize fight and more mud wrestling, as 23 of the 43 total points came from errors, 12 of those service errors. The Gauchos found themselves in a 9-2 hole early on, and while they were able to get back within five at 14-9, the home team was unable to get within less than four for the remainder of the set and the visitors took it by a 25-18.
 
After another quick break, the comeback looked on to start the third set as both teams got their hitting back on track. The Gauchos raced out to a 7-3 lead, again thanks in large part to Guy and Aruya. Guy thought he had an ace to make it 4-1 as the Cougars' reception went up into the rafters, but when the visitors managed to keep the play alive, Guy finished it for good with a laser-beam kill. Two points later, Aruya slammed down his second floor-denting hammer of the night. The Gauchos kept BYU at that arm's length, four-point lead for much of the set, but as time wore on, the visitors were able to chip away. An 18-14 Santa Barbara lead became 18-16, then 21-20, then a service error and service ace put BYU ahead for the first time in the frame. Trailing 23-22, the Gauchos thought they had a kill off a Cougar and out to tie things back up, but the referees ruled no touch and BYU had match point. Still, Santa Barbara fought it off twice, tying the scores at 24. Only then were the visitors able to get the two consecutive points they needed to decide the contest.
 
With a rematch less than 24 hours away, the Gauchos will hope for some regression to the mean; Thursday was their least efficient hitting performance of the season, barely more than half of their average hitting percentage coming into the match.
 
Guy and Aruya were the only Gauchos to hit above .200 Thursday night, with Guy hitting .310 and Aruya an impressive .571, though that was on just seven swings. For Guy, Thursday was his fourth match hitting .300 or better on the season. To put Aruya's efficiency in perspective, Thursday was actually his second-least accurate evening by hitting percentage this year; it would have been the most accurate for any other Gaucho not named Cole Schobel.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos and Cougars return to the court for round two on Friday from The Thunderdome. First serve is set for 7 p.m., with the match to be streamed live on ESPN+ with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com.