No. 5-ranked BYU spoiled UCSB’s attempt to win its own Gaucho Invitational on Saturday night, defeating the host with stellar blocking at the net and a big dose of tournament MVP Taylor Sander, who finished with 16 kills and 20 points.
After dropping the first game 25-15, BYU recovered to win the next three, 25-18, 25-18, 25-19, and won over the noisy crowd at Rob Gym.
“UCSB did a great job that first game, knocking us on our heels a little bit,” said BYU head coach Rob Neilson. “It was a gut check for us. Our guys did a nice job staying with the defense.”
Defense was the key to the Cougars’ victory, as they out blocked UCSB 17-3, and held the Gauchos to a .216 hitting percentage. Another factor in the match was the Gauchos’ inability to handle BYU’s tough serves.
“In the first game we served great, we passed the ball well, and we battled their servings,” said UCSB Head Coach Rick McLaughlin. “As the match went on our serving broke down and their serving got better, and the passing switched ends too. It sounds like a simple thing, but whoever doesn’t win the serving and passing battle is going to lose the match almost every single time.”
As the Gauchos’ passing and serving weakened, BYU’s only got stronger, which opened up lanes for Sander and Steve Rindfleisch (12 kills, 6 digs) to break down UCSB defense. Sander, after struggling in the first game with a few errors and swings blocked, showed why he was the tournament MVP as he continually found holes in the Gaucho defense.
“We love watching him play, we love having him on the team,” said Neilson. “For a true freshman, just playing well beyond his years, and he’s doing an outstanding job for us in every aspect of the game.”
“I couldn’t do it without my team,” said Sander. “They all supported me. We all play well together and it makes it easy.”
Despite closing out the preseason on a loss, coach McLaughlin feels that Saturday’s loss was not necessarily a bad thing.
“I think (the loss) helps us,” said McLaughlin. “We need to learn how to play competitive whether we’re winning by a lot or losing by a lot, whether we give up runs of points or it’s a point by point play. We gotta get it out of our heads. It’s a good learning experience, our guys know exactly what we need to do.”
“We’re going to keep going in practice, practicing on the little things and hopefully we’ll get to the point where it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side,” said Jeff Menzel, who led the Gauchos with 15 kills and 17.5 points.
Despite a less outstanding performance in the championship game, a few Gauchos had a solid tournament, as Scott Slaughter (5 kills) and Andy McGuire (11 digs) were named to the all-tournament team.
The Gauchos need to regroup as they look ahead to conference play, which starts next weekend in San Diego against UCSD. With seven of the top twelve preseason-ranked programs in the nation in their conference, UCSB has to be successful in conference to advance into postseason play.
“Boy, our conference, from top to bottom, is pretty good,” said McLaughlin. “I’d say we’re right in the middle there. We’re excited, and we think we can do what it takes to make the playoffs. It’d be the first time in a while for the Gauchos. And once we get to the playoffs, we’ll see what happens from there.”
