Santa Clara, CA—The UC Riverside Volleyball Team had hopes of starting the season 3-0 for the first time in the program's Division I history, but the Highlanders dropped three close sets to Rutgers Saturday afternoon at the Santa Clara Tournament for their first loss of the season.

UCR scored the first three points of the match, but the Scarlet Knights recorded four of the next five to knot things up at four. The score was still tied at 19, but Rutgers closed out the first by taking six of eight points to win 25-21.

The second set was just as tight, and the Highlanders staved off a pair of set point courtesy of an Alex Gresham kill and a Rutgers attack error to tie the score at 24. Unfortunately, the Scarlet Knights rebounded to win the next two points to go up two sets to none.

A 10-3 Rutgers run midway through the third set turned a 7-7 tie into a 17-10 lead, and the Scarlet Knights closed out the match with a 25-19 victory.

The Highlanders have one more match remaining this weekend as they take on Santa Clara beginning at 7 pm PT.