A strong defensive presence and tough serving helped the UCSB women’s volleyball team shake off some of its slow-starting doldrums and defeat Cal State Fullerton 27-25, 25-21, 25-16 on Friday night in the Thunderdome.
The Gauchos won for the sixth time in their past seven matches and are now 17-5, 7-3 in the Big West. Fullerton falls to 12-10, 3-6.
A pair of Gauchos turned in double-doubles, as Rebecca Saraceno had 13 kills and 11 digs and Leah Sully had 10 kills and 15 digs. It was Saraceno’s 14th double-double of the season. Chelsey Lowe led the team with 19 digs and setter Dana Vargas had 37 assists.
“This was a hard-fought match,” UCSB head coach Kathy Gregory said. “Fullerton is a great defensive team. The key for us winning was that we remained composed and we were able to play big points in games one and two and our serving took over in game three.”
Eight times did the Gauchos enjoy service aces as Sully, who already holds the school record with seven service aces, had five service aces. Lowe added two more.
Stacey Schmidt had the other service ace to go with five kills, eight digs and two block assists. Kasey Kipp had a team-best four block assists. Lilly Lopez had a pair of block assists and nine kills.
Cal State Fullerton had swept UCSB on Oct. 3 and the Gauchos made sure to return the favor on Friday. Following the Gauchos’ sweep of UC Riverside last weekend, it marked the first time UCSB had consecutive sweeps since Sept. 22-25 vs. LMU and UCR.
Helping the Titans stay in the match were Kayla Neto, Erin Saddler and Torrie Brown, all of whom tallied double-digit kills.
Only two Fullerton players had double-digit digs and the Titans had three blocking errors while hitting just .169.
Olivia Ruff added five digs, three assists and a kill for the Gauchos.
Long Beach State (14-5, 7-2) will come to the Thunderdome on Saturday night in a 7 p.m. Halloween match. The 49ers and Gauchos played a five-set match on Oct. 2 with Long Beach victorious.
