UC Merced volleyball settles for progress in loss

Despite what its record indicates, the UC Merced men’s volleyball team feels like it has made steady progress in its second season.

Sets that the Bobcats would lose in the 25-12 to 25-15 ranges a year ago are now being dropped in the 20s. The next step in the team’s evolution is finding a way to pull some of those tight sets out.

Head coach David Noble hopes Friday night’s showing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Conference Tournament against No. 8 Warner University is a step in that direction. UCM fell 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-19, but took a set from the Royals for the first time in four matches on the year.

It was part of a positive all-around first day of the tournament for the Bobcats, as they pushed No. 6 Concordia 25-22, 25-14, 25-22 in a morning match.

“You want to be better at the end of the season than you were at the beginning, and I think we’ve accomplished that,” Noble said. “We’re competing with teams that we just weren’t able to hang with a year ago. We just haven’t been able to close out matches.

“If you can get in the 20s, those are sets there to be won. Hopefully next year we’ll start figuring out how. We’re good enough to compete with everyone, we’re just not good enough to win yet.”

It has shown, as Merced has struggled to a 2-18 record.

A big part of the problem has been the Bobcats’ inability to extend matches, getting swept in their first 17 losses. They bucked that trend with the first set on Friday night, riding the play of sophomore outside hitter Matt Lostetter to a 25-22 win.

Lostetter had six of his team-high 11 kills in the set.

“Team competition really drives us,” Lostetter said. “There’s a lot of capable outside hitters on this team. If you don’t get off to a fast start, you might not see much of the court in the next set. It definitely keeps you motivated.”

Warner (16-8) answered by taking a tight second set, 25-22, behind the steady play of Joshua Jordan (game-high 15 kills) and Steven Vaughn.

The match tilted the Royals’ way in set three.

Warner raced out to a 16-9 lead, but UCM came storming back with an 8-2 run. Freshman outside hitter Cole Smith (team-high 11 kills) and middle blocker Samuel Hala’ufia (nine kills, game-high 3 1/2 blocks) led the charge as the Bobcats trimmed the lead to 18-17.

As it did all night, Warner responded with its service game.

Martin Krueger (game-high 32 assists and five aces) recorded back-to-back aces as the Royals ran off four straight points and never looked back in a crucial third-set win. Warner finished with 10 aces and benefited from 13 Merced service errors.

“Serving has been one of our weak points all season,” Lostetter said. “I think we’ve gotten better at it because we haven’t eased the difficulty of our serves, but we’re not consistent enough yet. They have some guys that can flat-out drill a serve, and those are big points in a close game like this.”

Smith, Hala’ufia and Scott Livesay all had good days for the Bobcats. Smith had 14 kills in the Concordia loss and Hala’ufia chipped in nine more. Livesay finished with a team-high 56 assists in the two matches to go along with 10 kills and 16 digs.

This story was originally published April 10, 2015 at 10:59 PM with the headline "UC Merced volleyball settles for progress in loss."