SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Riverside played the penultimate match of its four-match road trip on Friday at UC Santa Barbara, falling 3-0 at the UCSB Events Center.

UC Riverside enjoyed an upstart beginning to Friday evening in Santa Barbara with a 3-0 scoring run aside from never straying more than three points behind the Gauchos for the majority of set one. An attack error from UC Santa Barbara led to a Gaucho timeout after UCR pulled ahead 21-20 on a 6-2 scoring run, but couldn't push set one over the line. 

The majority of the Highlander offense was spent in that first set, as UCR recorded the majority of its kills, assists, digs and points through frame number one. 

Isabella Scarlett and Delaney Tate combined for 20 of UC Riverside's 37 digs on the night with 10 apiece, a new season high for Scarlett. It was also Tate's third 10-dig performance of Big West play and eighth of the season. 

Tayler Hifo notched 18 assists on the night and now sits four shy of 500 for her collegiate career. 

UCR had a more positive start to set three, just trailing 8-6 with kills from Tate and Ayanna Kimbrough. 

UC Riverside has a quick turnaround with a 5:00 p.m. first serve at CSUN on Saturday on ESPN+.