SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The University of California, Merced women's volleyball team beat Park University Gilbert in the California Pacific Conference Championship Opening Round but saw their season come to a close a day later after falling in four sets to top-seeded University of Saint Katherine in the semifinals.
The Bobcats (14-19) finish the season with 14 wins, marking their highest win total since 2019. Additionally, the Bobcats postseason win was their first since winning the 2020 Cal Pac Tournament Championship match.
Head coach Ai Prachumsri's team had to come from behind against Park Gilbert in the 3-2 (25-27, 25-19, 20-25, 14-25, 10-15) victory. The Bobcats are now 3-3 all-time in postseason five-set matches. The Bobcats won the match in part due to 58 kills on a .200 hitting percentage, while limiting Park Gilbert to just a .112 success rate.
The Bobcats semifinal loss came in four sets, 3-1 (25-23, 25-23, 20-25, 23-25) to regular-season champion University of Saint Katherine. The Bobcats led 15-4 in the fourth set in an attempt to force a fifth frame but lost the lead at 20-19 and never recovered. The Bobcats recorded six more kills than USK in the match, but had seven less aces and nine less blocks.
Alexa Ultreras led the Bobcats postseason efforts with a 14-kill, 14-dig double-double against Park and then smacked a career-high 19 kills against USK. She also had two aces against USK.
Setters Kyra Miller and Bianca Malaluan averaged 5.5 and four assists per set, respectively. Miller had a career-high 26 assists to go along with three service aces in the opening round. Malaluan had a double-double in the opening round with a career-high 15 digs, while nearing another double-double with nine digs against the Firebirds.
Destiny Lei Ramilo recorded 20 digs in each match and became the third player in program history to eclipse the 1000 career digs mark. She also moved into third in program history with 354 career sets played.
Other notables in the postseason include nearly 1.5 kills and 1.5 digs per set from Sera Riley and back-to-back double figure digs outings for Jazmine Banks. Serena Choi, Semiramis Tanasescu, Morgan Wilson, and Kennedi Baker all had nearly 1.5 kills per set. Wilson had a career-high 12 kills on a .478 hitting percentage in the win.
Stay up to date with everything UC Merced women's volleyball in the offseason by following the team on social media @UCMercedWVB.
