MERCED, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men's volleyball team earned a sweep over Simpson University on Sunday night, winning 3-0 (25-17, 30-28, 25-13) to extend their winning streak to a season-long three matches.
The Bobcats (7-11, 5-1) are now officially halfway through their Cal Pac slate and are tied with Westcliff University for first place. The top four teams make the Cal Pac Men's Volleyball Championships which will be held in Merced April 19-20.
Jared Guglielmana tallied another double-double in the win, his second in the last three matches and his third of the season overall. He filled the stat sheet with 12 kills, ten digs, and two blocks.
Toby Miller recorded 19 assists and registered his 1,000th career assist in the opening set. The Clovis, Calif., native is just the third player in program history to reach the 1,000 mark joining Ryan Steele and Matthew Pelfini. Miller currently has 1,014 career assists.
Ryan Kilgore pitched in nine kills, four digs, a career-high tying three blocks, and a service ace. One of his three blocks was solo to move ahead of Jacob Shelton for sole possession of third place on the program's all-time solo blocks list with 39 career solo blocks.
Jared Schnake added eight kills on a .375 hitting percentage, eight digs, and two service aces.
Max Niederberger had four blocks and four kills, while Sebas Moreno registered ten digs.
Nathan Campbell was good for 15 assists, two blocks, and two kills. Brennan Taylor added two blocks in just the third set alone.
UC Merced led from start to finish in the opening set and used a 7-2 run to go up by as many as six points as early as the 13-7 mark. Kilgore had two kills in the spurt. A little later, Niederberger scored three straight points to extend the Bobcats lead to 17-9 and the lead grew to a set-high nine points at 21-12 after a Schnake kill. Head coach Ai Prachumsri's team finished the frame with a Guglielmana kill for set point to win it 25-17.
UC Merced and Simpson traded leads early in the second set but it was the Red Hawks who started to create some separation and they led by four points on multiple occasions including at the 13-9 mark and then again later on at 20-16. Then, the Bobcats trailed 21-18 before going on a 6-0 run to erase the deficit and take a 24-21 advantage. Guglielmana was behind the service line in the run and he had one ace in the stretch. However, the Bobcats didn't score set point easily and Simpson forced extra points with strong blocking. Simpson would end up having three set point chances of their own, but they couldn't take advantage of the opportunity either. The Bobcats trailed 28-27 when Schnake put together back-to-back kills and then Guglielmana ultimately finished the long set with another kill and the 30-28 set two win put the Bobcats up 2-0 in the match.
The Bobcats dominated the third set and forced Simpson to hit -.200 in the final frame, which dropped Simpson's success rate for the whole match to .037. Kilgore started the set with four straight points, including three blocks and a kill. Shortly after, back-to-back kills from Taylor and Schnake had UC Merced rolling up 9-2. The good start was enough for the Bobcats to remain in front and then the squad had an even better ending to finish off the sweep. Leading 16-13, UC Merced ended the night on a 9-0 run with Dylan Jong behind the service line. The Bobcats final nine points were made up of two Guglielmana kills, a Guglielmana and Niederberger block, a Jong ace, and five more Simpson attack errors. The Bobcats block scored match point.
UC Merced finished the straight set victory with three-set season-high's of 35 assists and 34 digs. The Bobcats 39 kills and eight blocks tied the team's three-set season-high.
With the win, the Bobcats improve to 8-2 all-time against Simpson and 7-0 on Hostetler Court.
Up next, the Bobcats host Pacific Union College on Friday, March 15 at 2:00pm inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium in Merced, Calif.
