JAMESTOWN, N.D. – The University of California, Merced men's volleyball team dropped both of its matches on Saturday at the Jamestown Invitational, falling in five sets to Calumet College of St. Joseph and in three sets to #13 University of Jamestown.
Match One 3-2 (25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 19-17) Loss to CCSJ
UC Merced's (1-5) attempt at their first reverse sweep in program history fell just short. After the Bobcats forced a fifth set, they overcame a 14-11 deficit in the decisive frame and staved off three more set points in extra points before falling.
Despite the loss, the Bobcats tallied 68 kills which marked their most in a match since March 27, 2022. UC Merced maintained a .273 hitting percentage and their top three kills leaders all notched a career-high or tied their career-high.
Kilgore led all Bobcats with a career-high 20 kills on a .606 (20/0/33) hitting percentage. The senior, who started his career with 28 straight kills without an error over his first five matches, accomplished another one-of-a-kind feat on Saturday morning by not committing an error on 33 swings. Kilgore also had two blocks, one solo in the five-set affair.
Jared Guglielmana tied his career-high with 19 kills while operating at a .303 success rate. He has smacked double figure kills hitting .300 in three consecutive matches. The Madera, Calif., native added a career-high tying four blocks, four digs and a service ace to his kills output. One of his four blocks was solo.
Kilgore and Guglielmana both went over 300 kills for their career with their Saturday efforts, becoming just the tenth and eleventh players in program history to accomplish that feat.
Toby Miller registered career-high's of 55 assists and six blocks. Miller is the first ever Bobcat to post those numbers in the same match and he also added eight digs and two kills. Overall, his 55 assists are tied for the seventh most in a single-match in UC Merced history.
Colin Ryan turned in a career-high nine kills with three blocks, one solo, and hit .313.
Javy Larranaga added eight kills, while Max Niederberger pounded out six kills on a .500 hitting percentage (6/1/10).
Other notables include three blocks each for Niederberger and Daniel Del Grande, nine digs from Sebas Moreno, and six digs each by Kaikoa Soma and Lincoln Smith.
UC Merced's offense got better and better as the match went on. UC Merced had more errors than kills in the first frame and then after hitting .150 in the second set, hit at least .300 the rest of the way including finishing the fourth set with a .500 hitting percentage.
The Bobcats never led in the opening set but were within two points at 14-12 and 18-16 before Calumet pulled away with a 7-3 set-ending run. Calumet smacked three consecutive kills to get to 25 points, winning it 25-19.
UC Merced scored the first four points of the second period highlighted by back-to-back Kilgore kills and hung onto the lead until a 4-0 Calumet run for the first lead change of the set, a 16-15 Calumet lead. The Bobcats then jumped back in front 18-16 and were tied 22-22 before dropping the second set 25-23 and falling behind 2-0 in the match.
The Bobcats proved to be better both offensively and defensively in the next two sets. In the third set, the Bobcats first five points were recorded via the kill and then head coach Ai Prachumsri's team broke a 5-5 tie and scored four unanswered points. Miller and Ryan combined for a block shortly after to put the Bobcats up 12-6 and then the advantage was as many as seven points at the 14-7 mark after a Larranaga kill. UC Merced was the first team to 20 points and led 20-16 at that moment before finishing off the 25-21 set three win.
UC Merced hit .500 in the fourth set while limiting the Crimson Wave to a .172 mark. There were 12 ties within the first 32 rallies before the Bobcats took the lead for good, beginning with a Larranaga kill breaking a 15-15 tie. Niederberger and Guglielmana followed with a kill, and then a Larranaga service ace had UC Merced up 19-15. The Bobcats led by at least four points the rest of the set, winning it 25-19 to force the fifth frame.
Both sides were rolling offensively in the fifth set as the two teams combined for 25 kills. Calumet, who hit .440 in the set, struck first with a 6-3 lead and also led 8-5 before back-to-back kills from Kilgore and Guglielmana brought the Bobcats within a point. Calumet slowly built their lead back up to three points by the 13-10 mark and then were serving for match point up 14-11. UC Merced staved off three consecutive match points and then did so again three more times and pulled even at 17-17. Of the six match-saving points, Kilgore scored two of the points with two kills and Miller had a block and a kill. However, Calumet finished the match with back-to-back kills, including one from the match's kills leader Francis Hauze. Hauze had 25 kills overall.
Match Two 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-20) Loss to #13 Jamestown
Kilgore had five kills and a block, while Jared Schnake and Brennan Taylor had four kills and two blocks each.
Other notables include 14 assists from Nathan Campbell, five digs from Moreno, four digs and ace from Dylan Jong, and two blocks from Del Grande.
Caylor Cox and Caydann Cox each had kill-dig double-double's and hit over .380 to lead the Jamestown Jimmies in the sweep.
UC Merced fell behind by five points early in the first set at 9-4 and the deficit doubled later on at 19-9 following a 5-0 Jamestown run. UJ added one more point to the run to go up by eleven points, which also marked the final margin in the first set as UJ won it 25-14.
A Schnake kill had the Bobcats within a point at the 10-9 mark in second set before the opponent countered with a 5-0 run to create separation. The Bobcats trailed by nine points at 20-11, then cut the deficit to six with the help of Kilgore, before falling 25-15.
UJ recorded hitting percentages of .452 and .385 in their dominant first and second sets, while holding UC Merced under .080 in both.
Playing their sixth match in five days, UC Merced found themselves behind 7-1 in what would be the final set of a busy opening week. The deficit was between four and seven points from that point on with 25-20 being the final score in favor of Jamestown.
Looking ahead, the Bobcats will play NCAA Division One opponent #17 CSUN on Wednesday, February 7. First serve from Premier America Credit Union Arena in Northridge, Calif., is scheduled for 6:00pm.
