The No. 9 UCSB men’s volleyball team will take on No. 2 USC on Friday, January 5th, at 7:30 p.m. in the Thunderdome.
Match time was originally set for 7 p.m. but has been changed to 7:30 p.m. due to logistical concerns.
The Gauchos have been on a hot streak of late. On January 22, UCSB went down to UC Irvine and upset the defending national champions, 3-1. A week later on January 28, the Gauchos traveled to Palo Alto and proceeded to take down then-No. 2 Stanford in four sets as well. The next night, Cullen Irons had 15 kills and Jeff Menzel added nine kills as the Gauchos easily swept the Pacific Tigers, 3-0, at the Spanos Center.
UCSB is coming off a heartbreaking five-set loss to No. 10 Pepperdine. The Gauchos were able to get out to a 2-0 lead thanks to a .352 team hitting percentage over the first two frames. However, Pepperdine was able to answer by winning the next two sets and then took advantage of late Gaucho errors to take the fifth set and the match.
Irons currently holds the title of MPSF Player of the Week after hitting .397 in two matches last week. Menzel leads the MPSF in kills per set (5.28) and points per set (5.94).
