Men�s
Volleyball
Waves
Douse Gauchos in Conference Opener
Pair of All-Americans
Carry Pepperdine Past UCSB in Four Games
By Tiffany Polfer
/ Staff Writer
Published Thursday, January 10, 2008
The #14 UCSB men�s volleyball team crashed on the Waves
yesterday, as the Gauchos (1-3) kicked off its Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation season with a 3-1 loss to Pepperdine (1-0). The scores for the night
were 30-26, 30-23, 27-30, 30-22.
�I think we played a good match.� Head Coach Ken Preston
said. �We just made too many hitting errors.�
UCSB was out-hit .387 to .164 by Pepperdine. In game three,
the Gauchos were able to hit .333, but they were held below .200 for the rest
of the match. As a team, the Gauchos committed 36 errors on the match, 16 of
which were blocks on the net.
�If you hit the ball in and have a good hitting percentage,
you will have a good game,�
Freshman outside hitter Jeff Menzel led the Gauchos with 23
kills. Senior opposite Theo Brunner was the next on the team with 14 kills.
Freshman middle blocker Scott Slaughter led UCSB with a .286 hitting
percentage. Sophomore middle blocker Sam Moisenco and
Brunner tied with four blocks, as the Gauchos were out-blocked 16 to seven.
The Waves were led by junior opposite Paul Carroll, who
recorded 30 kills and a .523 hitting percentage. Throughout the match,
Pepperdine hit above .300 for all four games, with the highest team percentage
coming in the 30-23 game two victory, in which the
team hit .433. At the net, junior middle blocker Mark Hulse
led all players with eight blocks total and 2007 National Player of the Year
senior setter Jonathan Winder was second with six blocks.
�I thought we played really hard,�
UCSB continues its road swing against USC (1-3) Friday at the