RIVERSIDE – It’s official. The UCSB women’s volleyball team is on a roll.
The Gauchos won their sixth straight match, easily dispatching UC Riverside 25-18, 25-18, 25-19 on Saturday night.
With the victory, the Gauchos put the NCAA Tournament squarely in their sights. Finishing the Big West season in second place with an 11-5 mark, UCSB improves to 18-11 overall with two matches left in a tournament next weekend at San Diego State.
Even more impressive is that UCSB has been nearly unstoppable in its six-match winning streak. The Gauchos have lost just four overall sets during the six matches and have looked dominant during much of it.
Saturday’s win was the fourth sweep Santa Barbara has enjoyed during its winning streak.
Leah Sully garnered her second straight double double and her 20th of the season with 13 kills and 12 digs, both of which led the team.
Senior Stacey Schmidt was the other UCSB player with double-digit kills as she recorded 11. Chelsey Lowe, trying to become the school’s single-season digs leader, finished with 11 digs.
UCSB hit .333 on the night, including a ridiculous .556 percentage in the first set. The team had just eight hitting errors on the evening.
Freshman setter Hanna Nielson finished with 35 assists, seven digs and a pair of kills. Lily Lopez had six kills and a season high three service aces. The Gauchos were nails from the service line, serving up 10 aces and thoroughly dominated the Highlanders all night long.
UCSB closes out its season next weekend at the Turkey Time Tournament where they will face TCU and San Diego State.
