Box Score

Santa Barbara, CA—The UC Riverside Volleyball Team was looking to get a win in its first of two matches on the road Friday against UC Santa Barbara (5-12,1-5), but the Gauchos got 13 kills from Phoebe Grunt and 23 digs from Jaylen Villanueva as the Gauchos picked up the 3-1 victory.

The Highlanders were in control of the first set with an 11-5 lead, forcing the Gauchos to call timeout. UCR then took 7 of the next 10 points on their way to claiming the first set 25-15.

The second set started out with the Gauchos winning 4 of the first 5 points, but UCR (6-13, 1-5) responded by winning 7 points in a row. The rest was of the set was tightly contested with neither team leading by more than 2 points, until the Gauchos ran off 6 points in a row to take the second set 25-20.  

The third and fourth sets each started with UC Santa Barbara getting out to a 5-1 lead. The Gauchos never trailed in either of the final two sets of the match, finishing 25-19 and 25-18 to claim their first Big West conference victory.

Helena Peric led UCR with 14 kills, but the Highlanders only managed an attack percentage of 0.65 through the four sets.

The Highlanders remain of the road with the next stop at Cal Poly (13-4, 5-1), Saturday at 7 pm PT.