Needing wins in their last two matches of the regular season, and some help from a pair of teams ahead of them in the MPSF standings, the Gauchos were swept by the Stanford Cardinal on Friday night to officially eliminate them from postseason contention.
Game scores for the match were 25-19, 25-14, 25-20. UCSB’s record fell to 7-18, 5-16 after the loss.
Freshman outside hitter Kevin Donohue was the standout for the Gauchos on Friday night, recording 10 kills on 28 swings while also serving the team’s only ace.
Junior outside hitter Miles Evans, coming off his career-high 21 kill performance last Saturday night against Hawai’i, put down 8 kills while also finishing with four digs.
Senior outside hitter Blaine Nielsen had four kills and four digs for the Gauchos.
Stanford was led by the AVCA player of the week Erik Shoji, who had 14 kills, which was twice as many as the next highest total- UCSB libero Chad Kingi’s seven.
Stanford’s Brad Lawson had a match-high 16 kills, while Steven Irvin was not far behind with 14.
With the win, Stanford improved to 19-6, 16-5, and find themselves in a three-way tie for the third spot in the conference.
The Gauchos will finish up their season tomorrow night, taking on the Pacific Tigers at the Spanos Center.
