CHICAGO, Ill. – The University of California, Merced men's volleyball team swept No. 15 Indiana Tech in the 2025 season opener on Thursday night, 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 28-26) as part of the SXU Tournament.
The Bobcats (1-0) win was their seventh Top 15 win in program history, including the third since the start of last season. It was the first sweep over a nationally-ranked team since the 2018 season.
Thursday night also marked the Bobcats third opening-day win in the last five years.
Jozef Lingenfelter and Jared Guglielmana led the Bobcats with 15 kills and 14 kills, respectively, hitting over .415. Lingenfelter's 15 kills marked a three-set career-high.
Guglielmana, who also had nine digs and a service ace, passed Joseph Webb for fourth in program history with 531 career kills.
Daniel Del Grande registered a career-high eight kills and a .667 hitting percentage (8/0/12). He is just the sixth player in program history without an error on a minimum of ten swings, the first since Emmanuel Egun in 2021. The Bobcats middle also had two blocks, one solo.
Toby Miller tallied a season-opening double-double with a three-set career-high 37 assists and ten digs. Overall, Thursday night marked his fifth career double-double and he has notched the feat in back-to-back season openers.
Brennan Taylor pitched in four kills and three blocks, while Kaleb Cole had four kills and two blocks. Both Bobcats had one solo block. Sebas Moreno and Mason Stokes recorded five digs each.
UC Merced hit .366 as a team, while limiting Indiana Tech to a .174 mark. The Bobcats recorded 20 more kills than the opponent, 49-29.
Head coach Ai Prachumsri's team jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the opening frame but then Indiana Tech closed the gap to one with a 5-0 run. Tech ended its run with a service error, and then Moreno followed with an ace for UC Merced to extend the lead to three points. The Bobcats also led by three at 17-14 before a 3-0 spurt sparked by a Guglielmana kill doubled the lead, 20-14. UC Merced and Indiana Tech traded points the rest of the way resulting in the 25-18 set one win for the Bobcats.
It was tied 6-6 in the second set when Taylor and Miller teamed up for a block. The block would start an immediate 4-0 run and an extended 13-4 run, putting the Bobcats up by nine points at 19-10. Taylor also had a solo block and a kill in the surge. Lingenfelter scored the Bobcats 20th point via the kill as the Bobcats went on their way to a 25-16 victory. UC Merced never trailed in the first or second set.
There were five ties in the third set before Indiana Tech took its first lead at any point, 16-15. The Bobcats grabbed the advantage back at 18-17 with a Cole and Del Grande block. However, the Warriors reached 20 points first and had a chance to extend the match a little later leading 24-23. Guglielmana responded with a kill and then the Warriors committed a service error on their next chance to score set point. The missed serve opened up the door for the Bobcats and Del Grande put away a kill to go up 26-25. The 15th-ranked Warriors responded with a kill, and then Cole and Stokes finished off the sweep for the Bobcats with back-to-back kills.
Thursday night marked the Bobcats first sweep in a season-opener since 2021.
The matchup was the first ever between the two programs.
Looking ahead, UC Merced will continue the SXU Tournament playing fourth-ranked and reigning NAIA champion Georgetown College on Friday, January 24. First serve from the Shannon Center in Chicago, Ill., is scheduled for 2:00pm PST.
