MERCED, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men's volleyball team fell 3-1 (25-12, 19-25, 25-17, 25-19) to UC Santa Cruz in the regular season finale on Saturday night. Saturday was also Senior Night and the Bobcats six seniors were honored in a ceremony prior the match.
Despite the loss, the Bobcats (12-14) took a set from the Banana Slugs for the first time in the last three matches and for the first time since January 21, 2022.
Senior Jared Guglielmana led the Bobcats with ten kills on a .353 hitting percentage and passed Trevor Jurlina for fifth in program history with 497 career kills. Guglielmana also had five digs, two blocks, and a service ace on his senior night.
Kaikoa Soma finished with a career-high nine kills to go along with six digs and two blocks, one solo.
Ryan Kilgore had six kills on a .385 hitting percentage, six digs and two blocks. Javy Larranaga had six kills, five digs, and two blocks, while Lincoln Smith recorded five kills, a block, and a service ace.
Nathan Campbell registered 30 assists and seven digs. Brennan Taylor had four blocks.
The Bobcats scored the first point of the match via a Taylor and Kilgore block but it ended up being UC Merced's only lead of the opening set. UC Santa Cruz followed with back-to-back points and then leading 6-5, the Banana Slugs exploded on an 8-0 run to create separation and grab a 14-5 lead. UC Merced fell behind by double figures at 20-10 and didn't get any closer than nine the rest of the way.
Head coach Ai Prachumsri's team bounced back in the second set and scored seven consecutive points highlighted by a kill and a block from Guglielmana to go up 7-1. The Bobcats also led by six points at 9-3 before the lead was cut down to two points at 10-8. UC Merced managed to build their lead back to five points with the help of Campbell shortly after and the Bobcats were the first team to 20 while leading 20-16. The Bobcats put together a strong finish that included serving for set point at 24-17 following a Smith service ace. A few rallies later, Soma scored set point with a kill.
UC Merced led 12-5 in the third set before the Banana Slugs put together another game-changing run, this time a 14-0 run with Nico Espinosa behind the service line. The run started with three straight kills and UCSC scored ten of the 14 points on their own in the run that put them up 19-12. UC Merced got no closer than six points the rest of the way, ultimately falling 25-17.
The two teams traded sideouts through the middle portion of the fourth set and there were nine ties and three lead changes resulting in a 13-13 tie after 26 rallies. UC Santa Cruz's Riley Norman broke the tie from there and although it gave his team the lead for good, the Bobcats remained within two points until late. Colin Ryan smacked a UC Merced kill to make it a one-point game at 20-19, but then UC Santa Cruz went on a tear and finished on a 5-0 match-ending run scoring match point with a service ace.
Despite the loss, UC Merced tallied more digs (37) and blocks (7.5) than UC Santa Cruz.
Up next, UC Merced will host University of Saint Katherine in the California Pacific Conference Championship Semifinals on Friday, April 19 at 2:00pm inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium. The Bobcats enter the tournament as the #1 seed after winning the first California Pacific Conference Regular Season Championship in program history.
