First-year head coach Rick McLaughlin wasted no time hitting the recruiting trail this summer and it paid off as the UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball team recently received National Letters of Intent from two highly-touted recruits – middle blocker Dylan Davis (Corona del Mar, Calif./Corona del Mar High School) and setter Oliver Deutschman (Pacific Palisades, Calif./Crossroads School) – that will don the blue and gold for the 2010 season.
Currently a senior at Corona del Mar, the six-foot-eight Davis is widely considered the nation’s top class of 2009 middle blocker and one of the top two recruits at any position. As a junior, he earned All-CIF Southern Section Division II Third Team and All-Pacific Coast League First Team honors with the Sea Kings.
In club ball, Davis’ highly-ranked Balboa Bay team won a silver medal in the 17-and-under division at the 2008 Junior Olympics, where Davis was tabbed a First Team All-American. He was also a starter on the U.S. Youth National Team that won gold at the 2008 NORCECA Championships and qualified for the 2009 Youth National World Championships in Italy this coming summer. In early 2008, Balboa Bay placed first at the Southern California Volleyball Association Boys Invitational. Davis earned MVP accolades at the 2007 Junior Olympics in Atlanta after his team won gold in the 16-and-under division.
Also recruited by fellow Mountain Pacific Sports Federation members UCLA, Pepperdine, USC, and UC Irvine, Davis will join current Gauchos Blaine Nielsen and Scott Slaughter, who both played prep volleyball at Corona del Mar.
Heralded as the top setter in the country from the class of 2009, Deutschman is currently in his senior year at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, Calif. With Pacific Palisades Volleyball Club, Deutschman won gold at the 2008 Junior Olympics, topping Davis’ Balboa Bay squad in the 17-and-under title match. Like Davis, the six-foot-four Deutschman was named a First Team All-American following the tournament. He was also a starter, along with Davis, on the U.S. Youth National Team that won the 2008 NORCECA title and qualified to compete at the 2009 Youth National World Championships in Italy.
