Clearly, on Senior Night no less, the UC Santa Barbara women’s volleyball team would be led by Rebecca Saraceno. Although the Gauchos have one more home match, Saraceno’s senior celebration took place on Saturday and the All-American candidate celebrated by leading the Gauchos to a 25-15, 25-21, 25-18 victory over Cal State Northridge.
Saraceno, playing for the first time since injuring her knee on Nov. 7 at Cal Poly, notched a team-leading 10 kills, had a team-best eight digs and added a service ace and two block assists for good measure. The victory improves the Gauchos’ mark to 21-7 overall and 11-5 in the Big West. UCSB secured second place in the conference.
Cal State Northridge was led by Britney Graff, who had 11 kills. The Matadors fall to 8-22, 4-12. The Gauchos swept the Matadors in both meetings this season.
UC Irvine lost to Long Beach State on Saturday, meaning the Gauchos finished conference play in second place, UCSB’s best finish in the Big West since winning the league crown in 2005. Though UCSB and UCI hold the same 11-5 conference mark, the Gauchos defeated UCI twice, earning the tiebreaker.
Making things easier for Saraceno was the fact that Lily Lopez had seven kills, Stacey Schmidt added six and Kasey Kipp and Charlene DeHoog had five apiece. Kipp had a solo block and six block assists as the Gauchos tallied 9.5 total team blocks. Schmidt had four block assists.
Setter Dana Vargas handed out 29 assists while adding eight digs and two aces. Leah Sully had six digs while Chelsey Lowe and Olivia Ruff added five each.
UCSB had little trouble vs. CSUN, only trading five lead changes with the Matadors all night – with all those coming in the second set.
The Gauchos close out the regular season on Tuesday vs. San Diego State in a 7 p.m. match at the Thunderdome.
Saraceno has senior moment in UCSB sweep
November 21, 2009 by
