JAMESTOWN, N.D. – The University of California, Merced men's volleyball team earned two wins on Saturday afternoon at the UJ Invitational, sweeping Central Christian College (25-16, 25-9, 25-11) before knocking off Viterbo University in four sets (25-21, 25-17, 19-25, 25-17) to close out the multi-team event.

UC Merced (3-6) recorded season-high's in both victories and ripped across a program-record 18 service aces in the sweep over Central Christian. The Bobcats also recorded a season-best .464 hitting percentage in the sweep, while tallying best's of 47 kills, 40 digs, and 12 blocks against Viterbo.

VS. Central Christian College

Chris Morikawa, Lincoln Smith, and CJ Blankenship each recorded four service aces and had at least three kills for the Bobcats. The four aces for Smith and Blankenship marked career-high's.

Morikawa tied his career-high with his aces output and moved ahead of Kainoa Ferguson for second place on UC Merced's all-time list with 56 career service aces.

Attacking wise, Ryan Kilgore (6 kills/.545%), Kaikoa Soma (5 kills/.625%), Max Niederberger (4 kills/.667%), Smith (4 kills/1.000%), and Morikawa (3 kills/.750%) were huge reasons why the Bobcats tallied a season-best .464 hitting percentage against the Tigers.

Nathan Campbell and Toby Miller shared setting duties and finished with 13 assists and eleven assists, respectively.

Max Niederberger had four blocks in the match.

Other individual notables include five digs from Morikawa, three kills in just one set from Javy Larranaga, and a career-high two service aces from Dylan Jong.

UC Merced's 25-9 set two win was head coach Ai Prachumsri and the Bobcats biggest set win of the season. The Bobcats got it done by hitting .579 in the frame while limiting Central Christian to -.294. Overall, UC Merced held the Tigers to a -.128 in the match.

The Bobcats shined even brighter in the third set, recording ten kills without an error and ripping across nine of their 18 total aces. Morikawa had all four of his aces during an early service run.

VS. Viterbo 

Morikawa paced the Bobcats with 14 kills, six digs, and two blocks in the invitational's finale, marking his fourth match already this season with double figure kills and 5+ digs.

Jozef Lingenfelter smacked a season-high ten kills to go along with a career-high three solo blocks. He also operated at a .538 success rate, had three digs, and a service ace.

Niederberger turned in his best performance of his young career with seven blocks and six kills. His seven blocks marked the highest blocks output by any Bobcat in 2023. Also of note, his six kills came on a .500 hitting percentage.

Larranaga hit .400 with eight kills, six digs, and two blocks, while Kilgore tied his career-high's with seven digs and three blocks.

Miller and Sebas Moreno finished with 23 and ten assists, respectively.

Other individual notables include six digs from Blankenship, two service aces from Smith, and two blocks, one solo, from Miller.

UC Merced used a 7-3 run midway through the opening set highlighted by two Niederberger blocks to start pulling away from Viterbo. The Bobcats controlled the majority of the second frame and used a set-ending 7-1 run put themselves in a good position up 2-0 in the match. UC Merced held Viterbo to a negative hitting percentage in each of the first two sets.

After dropping the third set, UC Merced bounced back with a wire-to-wire win in set four to end the day with a pair of victories. The Bobcats had their best set offensively to finish the invitational, recording 14 kills on a .478 success rate. Larranaga and Lingenfelter had four kills each in the frame.

With two UC Merced wins on Saturday, the Bobcats have now beaten 32 different opponents out of 47 in program history.

Up next, UC Merced hosts Simpson University in the California Pacific Conference opener on Friday, February 17 at 5:00pm inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.