The Park University Gilbert men's volleyball team dropped a pair of matches at UC-Merced this evening 3-1 (25-22, 17-25, 19-25, 18-25) and 3-0 (20-25, 25-27, 15-25). The Buccaneers drop to 0-4 on the year having lost two matches to No. 3 Benedictine-Mesa and now No. 16 UC-Merced (7-0).
"It was a hard-fought match against a very talented UC-Merced team," said Buccaneers head coach Clay Webb. "As a group we are starting to find our stride and although we didn't come away with the victory we competed at an extremely high level."
The Bucs got off to a great start in match one winning set one 25-22. It was a back and forth set with Park Gilbert finally taking a five straight points from down 12-13 behind kills by James Contreras, and Xander Thesz and a service ace by Nico Gutierrez. The Buccaneers then held on for the three-point set win.
The Bobcats then established themselves over the next three sets not allowing the Buccaneers to get to 20 points in any set. The numbers for the match were relatively even. The Bucs had 44 kills to the Bobcats 47 and 22 errors to 18 for Merced. The big difference was in attempts. It took Park Gilbert 109 total attempts to get to 44 kills, where the Bobcats only needed 88 which resulted in a gaudy .330 hitting percentage for UC-Merced, while the Bucs hit .202 which is respectable but paled in comparison.
Contreras led the Bucs with 12 kills in the match, while Thesz and Trey Smith each had 10. Thesz was the most efficient, hitting .533 with only two errors. He also had four total blocks, including two solo rejections. Setter Hunter Miller had 39 assists which was a season high for him and the fourth most in Buccaneers' history.
Match two saw the Bucs play two tight and hotly contested sets but ultimately, they fell in three. In set two, the Bucs led early 11-7, had a 22-21 lead late and were tied at 25-25 before two Bobcats kills finished the set.
Smith let Park Gilbert in kills for the third time in four matches with 15 kills and he hit .300 for the match. Contreras followed up his game 1 performance with another nine kills and .208 hitting percentage. Miller added another 31 kills and eight digs.
These two teams will meet one last time tomorrow at 6 p.m. Arizona time. With clocks changing Sunday morning, both California and Arizona will be on the same time tomorrow.
