UCSB couldn’t seal the deal in Davis Saturday night.
After taking a two-games-to-none lead, the Gauchos saw UC Davis rally to win three in a row and take the Big West women’s volleyball match.
UCSB captured the first two games, 30-28 and 25-21, but the Aggies bounced back to win the next three, 25-21, 25-15, 15-8, and hand the Gauchos their second conference loss of the season.
UCSB is now 11-9 overall and 5-2 in the Big West. UC Davis is 13-7, 5-3. UCSB still holds a second-place spot in the Big West.
Stacey Schmidt led Santa Barbara with 18 kills while Kara Sherrard picked up her seventh double-double of the season and her third in a row with 15 kills and 15 digs. Charlene DeHoog, who had 18 kills in a sweep of Pacific on Friday, had 15 kills.
Trailing 23-20 in the first set, UCSB got consecutive kills from Kasey Kipp, DeHoog and Sherrard to knot things up and the teams see-sawed until DeHoog and Sherrard put away kills to finally win the first battle.
In the second set, the Gauchos trailed 14-10 until Sherrard had a kill and a service ace and Stacey Schmidt had a pair of block assists and two kills during a seven-point run to put the Gauchos up 17-14 and the team didn’t trail the rest of the set.
With a chance to close out the match while holding a 19-14 lead in the third set, the Gauchos saw the Aggies turn it on. Davis took a 21-19 lead on one of Kayla Varney’s 19 kills and it led UCD to a game-three win.
UCSB never led in the fourth or fifth sets. The Aggies outhit the Gauchos .307 to .207. In the decding fifth game, the Gauchos hit .084 and Davis .474.
The Gauchos return home on Oct. 22 vs. UC Irvine.
