MERCED, Calif. - After an abrupt ending to their season last year, the University of California, Merced men's volleyball team started off 2021 with a bang and earned two sweeps on opening night Saturday against University of Saint Katherine.

The Bobcats won the opener 3-0 (25-13, 25-23, 25-16) and the latter half of the doubleheader 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-16).

This marks the Bobcats first 2-0 start in program history. The doubleheader sweep also marked the fifth time in program history that the Bobcats earned a sweep in back-to-back matches.

Match One Brief (25-13, 25-23, 25-16)

Returning California Pacific Conference Setter of the Year Ryan Steele tallied 28 assists and ran the offense to a .439 success rate, while Chris Morikawa tacked on 12 kills and tied his career-high with three service aces in the rout of Saint Katherine.

The Bobcats .439 hitting percentage is their fourth highest in program history. 

Fitting, Steele set Morikawa for the first point of the match and the Bobcats never looked back. A 5-0 UC Merced lead grew to a 10-3 lead, and the Bobcats led by eight points as soon as the 12-4 mark. The two teams traded points back and forth for a stretch, before the Bobcats ended the set with a 6-1 run. Morikawa highlighted the set-ending run with two kills and a block, while Kainoa Ferguson added a service ace. Emmanuel Egun scored set point with a kill.

Set two featured a lot more back and forth action than set one. Saint Katherine held multiple leads throughout, but never by more than two points. UC Merced built up a three-point lead at 17-14 and then again at 19-16. Up 20-19, the Bobcats used a 3-0 run to take their biggest lead of the set at 23-19. Jacob Semon notched a solo block against the opponent's top attacker, Troy Jackson, during the pull away. Semon also was responsible for set point, his first kill of the season that got the Bobcats by Saint Katherine, 25-23. That would be the closest set the Bobcats played all night.

The Bobcats dominated the third set from the start, scoring seven straight points, with four of them coming from Lance Nua kills and Morikawa service aces. Head coach Ai Prachumsri's team led by double figures, 18-8, and a Trevor Jurlina solo block a few plays later gave the Bobcats their biggest lead of the set at 21-10. As the Bobcats were approaching match point, 6'7" freshman Ryan Kilgore took the court and delivered a huge kill for the 24th point. A Saint Katherine attack error ended the match seconds later. 

Nua played a big role in the win with eight kills and a .583 hitting percentage, while Jurlina finished with six kills and four blocks. Three of Jurlina's blocks were solo, marking a career-high. Zach Brill (6 digs) and Ferguson (5 digs) added to the defensive efforts in the back row.

Freshman Kaikoa Soma made his collegiate debut and recorded a dig and a kill. 

The solid defensive efforts all around limited Saint Katherine to a .088 hitting percentage. 

Match Two Brief (25-15, 25-18, 25-16)

After tallying eleven kills in match one, Morikawa wasn't stopping there and he came out even better in match two. Morikawa pounded out a three-set career-high 15 kills and tied his three-set career-high with three blocks. All of that came while hitting .400, his highest percentage ever while getting at least 25 attempts. Last year, Morikawa hit .800 in a home match against Saint Katherine with ten attempts.

Along with Morikawa, Egun played a huge role in the win as the middle blocker tallied eight kills on 12 attempts, no errors for a .667 hitting percentage. 

Like the first match, the Bobcats started fast and a 5-0 run allowed the Bobcats to go up 11-4 early on. The 5-0 run came with Morikawa behind the service line. That seven-point lead turned into an eight-point lead at 15-7, and a ten-point lead at 24-14. Five different Bobcats recorded a kill in the first set, one of which was Steele and it was he who recorded set point via the kill. Kilgore earned his first career assist on the play.

Saint Katherine scored the first point of set two with a service ace, but the Bobcats had an answer to explode and grabbed a four-point lead as early as the 9-5 mark. Shortly after, a 5-0 run highlighted by two Morikawa kills really pushed the Bobcats forward and they never looked back. The remainder of the set was the Egun show as the senior was responsible for four of the Bobcats final ten points. Steele set up three of the points, while one was an Egun overkill. A Jurlina overkill ended the set, 25-18, to put the Bobcats up 2-0.

In the third set, Egun picked up right where he left off and started what would be the final frame with his first service ace of the season. The Bobcats never trailed in the set and after Nua broke a 3-3 tie, the Bobcats led the rest of the way. Later on, Egun sparked a 4-0 run via a kill to create the separation. A different 4-0 run later in the match, this time sparked by an Egun and Steele block, carried the Bobcats to the finish line and a 25-16 set win resulting in a sweep. Egun's block was the 100th in his career.

Steele finished with 26 assists, eight digs and a block. Other notables include seven Brill digs, six Jurlina kills and three Semon blocks.

The Bobcats hit .239 in the match and held Saint Katherine to a -.025 hitting percentage in the match.

The Bobcats are now 6-0 all-time against University of Saint Katherine, with five of the six wins coming by the way of a sweep. 

Up next, the Bobcats host first-time opponent Pacific Union College on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30pm.