Gauchos redeem themselves by making a clean sweep over the Cougars
Despite having lost to the Cougars 3-1 in a match played at the Thunderdome on Thursday, the Gauchos were able to redeem themselves Friday night by making a clean sweep over the Brigham Young University at the same venue. The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match that took place both the teams ended in a 25-21, 25-23, 25-22 victory for the Gauchos.
With the win, the University of California, Santa Barbara has put a much needed end to a five match losing streak against the number two ranking Cougars. The Gauchos have now been able to make a total number of nine wins this season overall at the cost of losing six matches. Their MPSF record shows seven victories against five defeats. Despite these average statistics, the Gauchos are on an upward trend as they have won four matches out of the last five that they played.
In contrast to this, BYU’s overall season standing is much better. The Cougars have secured 11 wins with a relatively low number of four losses. In MPSF, they have made the same amount of wins as the Gauchos but have registered only three defeats.
Three of the Gauchos players were able to post kills in double digit figures. Cullen Irons stood out amongst the UCSB players by registering the highest number of kills at 18. Jeff Menzel, who is the senior outside hitter kept the score board ticking by adding 13 kills of his own. Both Cullen and Menzel were aided in the attack by Dylan Davis, the Gauchos sophomore middle blocker, who registered 11 kills for his team. The defence was held up by six digs each of Andy McGuire and Vince Devany.
The Gauchos put up a formidable challenge for the Cougars in the first set of the match. The UCSB attack was near flawless with Irons making six of his kills in the starting set whereas Menzel stood out by establishing a perfect hitting percentage. Devany made his presence felt by contributing a dozen assists. Such classy performance by the Gauchos team players overpowered the Cougars at last and they gave the initial set away to UCSB at 25-21.
Building on the momentum generated at winning the first set, the Gauchos were in control at the start of the second set as well. They took the lead at 5-0 with the help of Menzel’s brilliant serves. The first two points of the set were obtained by Menzel’s aces. Even though the Cougars tried to turn the tables towards themselves, they could not manage to do it completely and eventually lost the set to the Gauchos at 25-23.
As the pressure mounted on the Cougars after having suffered two losses, they stepped up their game a notch. However, the effort came in late and the Gauchos were able to overcome the Cougar defence by winning the last set of the match at 25-22.
Next in line for the Gauchos are matches against Pacific and Stanford whom they will be facing next weekend.
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