Gauchos sweep UC Irvine to wrap up home schedule in volleyball

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The No. 6 UC Santa Barbara men's volleyball team swept both its season series and its final home match over No. 14 UC Irvine in a 26-24, 25-19, 25-20 Friday night win.

The Gauchos improve to 16-6 overall and 5-2 in Big West play while dropping the Anteaters to 8-13 overall, 1-5 conference.

Junior outside hitter Ryan Wilcox tied for match-high honors with 10 kills (.350) and four blocks.

This marks his 12th double-digit kill performance in 13 outings, seven of which only went three sets.

Haotian Xia had another solid outing as he appeared in a second striaght match for just the second time since the end of January.

The junior opposite was second on the team with eight kills.

As a team, the Gauchos had seven aces, with their 2.33 aces per set tying their third-highest average of the year.

Sophomore Dayne Chalmers led all players with three. Wilcox had two. Sophomores Patrick Paragas and Andrew McSweeney had one each.

Middle blocker Donovan Todorov enjoyed his second-best hitting percentage (.778) of the year with seven kills. He also tied Wilcox for a match-high in blocks (4).

(article courtesy of UCSB Athletics).