UCSB’s volleyball team seems to have lost steam after clinching a playoff berth last week.
The Gauchos suffered their second straight home defeat since securing a MPSF Tournament spot, falling Thursday night to Pacific in five sets, 20-25, 25-23, 25-23, 14-25, 15-13.
UCSB has three matches remaining in the regular season, beginning tonight against Stanford at Rob Gym. The team will recognize its eight seniors before the final home match.
The Gauchos (13-12, 10-9) close out the season at Pepperdine and top-ranked USC next week.
UCSB was unable to sustain the momentum from the blowout win in the fourth set. The Gauchos jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the final set, but a 5-1 run by the Tigers put them up 5-3. UCSB would tie the score at 5-5 and 7-7, but Pacific snapped the 7-7 tie on consecutive attack errors by Santa Barbara and the set was never tied again.
Behind 14-11, the Gauchos used a Jeff Menzel kill and then an attack error by Taylor Hughes to narrow the gap to 14-13, but they couldn’t get all the way up the mountain as Hughes pounded Patrick Tunnell’s set right in the middle of the court for the final point of the night, giving Pacific the win.
Hughes had 26 kills and hit .396 to lead 15th-ranked Pacific (11-17, 5-15). Menzel had 20 kills and Scott Slaughter added 11 for the Gau
