UCSB/San Diego St.

[TheSantaBarbarian]

UCSB loses game 1 28-30. We led right up until the end and then had several hitting errors. Vargas had 15 assists.

Okay, Game tracker is FUBARED. It now has a tie at 33...

Looks like UCSB loses 33-35. Vargus with 18 assists. We need to have someone besides McLaughlin taking most of our swings. 5-2-22 just won't cut it.

[TheSantaBarbarian]

UCSB wins game 2 30-23. Quirte stepped up early in the game and the outsides played a little better. Vargus now with 33 assists. I'm liking what I'm seeing from frosh MB Kasey Kipp, over 2 games so far, 3 kills in 6 attacks (no errors) 1 solo and 5 block assists.

[TheSantaBarbarian]

UCSB up 10-1 in game 3. So far so good...
Gauchos win game 3 30-13, this match is going in the right direction.

McLaughlin put it into a new gear this game, she is now 18-4-51 @ .275. If she can step up at outside that could be the difference this year. Vargus is now at 47 assists. Not bad for her first NCAA match.

The best thing about this game was that we showed some killer instinct. We did not let them back into the game.

[TheSantaBarbarian]

That was painful. We were up starting at about 11. Then at about 20 our offense just shut down. Of our last 7 points I believe that 6 were from SD St. errors. UCSB loses game 4 27-20.

Well, it was our match, now we have to play them in game 5 on their home court. Will we play like games 1 and 4 or games 2 and 3?

[romeo]

Any updates? Big West needs some wins since Cal Poly and LBSU lost tonight.

[VollyDolly]

Gametracker says San Diego St. won, 15-9 in game 5

[TheSantaBarbarian]

...and the Gauchos fold like a wet noodle, dropping game 5 9-15.

Although teams win and lose matches, given only game tracker stats, I have to lay the loss with McLaughlin and Vargus. Just before our offense folded in game 4 McLaughlin had 21 kills to just 4 errors. The rest of the night she had 1 kill and 6 errors. Despite the fact that she was struggling, it looks as though the majority of the end match sets were pushed her way. Vargus had spread the offense quite nicely up to that point. Of course it is also possible that the passing went to hell and Vargus was just trying to get the ball in the general direction of someone, but that is impossible to tell from stats. However, we only had 2 recieve errors the whole match.

Overall, a poor initial outing for UCSB.

[romeo]

Too bad. I see Irvine and Northridge posted wins.

[deadpan2005]

just came back from the game. it was a miracle sdsu won. I'm so surprised.

SDSU started without aime cordiero, and i have no idea why because she was great when she was put in, probably would have had 40 digs on the night if she was in the whole time. the back up just lost in game 2 and never came back. The block was pretty impressive, think sdsu had 20 blocks. really exciting last 2 games. games 2 and 3 were embarrassing, almost looked like the girls didn't know how to play.

and one last note, sdsu is a very pretty team. whoa.

[middlemonkey]

you're right, the stats don't tell the whole story of what went on - there was quite a bit of back row hesitation and not enough communicating as to who was going to take the ball. some of the less experirenced players didn't seem quite ready for a college ball coming at them yet - we'll chalk that up to nerves! there is so much potential on this team if they can settle in the back row and dana can move the offense around - saraceno and mclaughlin had too many swings, by the 4th & 5th game, SDSU was on them & you could see the fatigue in the players, including the whole team. we need the girls to stay healthy & injury free.