University of California Santa Barbara defeats Brigham Young University by 3-2 on Saturday
University of California Santa Barbara surprised everyone as they earned a tough win on Saturday. The team that they were playing against was the Brigham Young University men’s volleyball team.
It was the first match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament match that the Gauchos were playing and were deemed to be the underdogs. However, after a gruelling match that went on for five long sets, the Gauchos proved to themselves as well
as to everyone else that they should not be taken lightly in the future.
The match between the two teams took place at the Smith Fieldhouse and brought an end to a seven-match winning streak of the Cougars. Not only that, it also meant that the Cougars lost a match for the first time during this season at the mentioned venue.
As the Gauchos were going giddy with joy at their tremendous victory and a frustrated Cougar team was heading out of the court, the scoreboard read as 25-21, 23-25, 26-24, 25-22.
Jeff Menzel, the Gaucho player made significant contributions in making his side win the match. He was able to register a total number of 27 kills in the entire match, making it the highest amount that he has been able to touch in this season so far.
Menzel made his feelings known by making the following comments at the end of the match, “You guys call us the underdogs. We knew we could win. I’m shaking all over.”
The credit of the recent win goes to the entire team of the Gauchos who were able to rally together and put in a coordinated effort. The game play of the Gauchos was well synchronized which helped them to execute their strategy smoothly with a minimum number
of errors. Not only was the offense of the Gauchos formidable but their defence was also giving the Cougars a hard time in making any head way in scoring points.
The win that the Gauchos have been able to pull off recently has brought their number of wins in the overall season to a figure of 15. They have been able to manage these victories at the high cost of incurring 14 losses.
As opposed to the overall season record of the Gauchos, the Cougars stand at a much better statistic. The number of times that the Cougars have earned themselves wins total to be 20. They have been able to manage this while registering defeats that amount
to be nine so far.
Where the Cougars appreciated the superior play of their opponents, they also recognised the mistakes that they made.
“All of us, we tried to do too much,” said BYU’s opposite Robb Stowell. “We tried to play perfect. We got away from what we had been doing all season.”
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