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Purdue Fort Wayne
UC Santa Barbara
Volleyball Loses 3rd Straight
3/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
March 2, 2007
Fort Wayne, IN - Senior outside hitter Evan Patak powered No. 4 UC-Santa Barbara past No. 8 IPFW on Friday night at the Hilliard Gates Sports Center.
The Gauchos won by the scores of 30-21, 30-27, and 34-32.
Patak broke open a close game one with a four-point service rotation which included three aces and a kill by Michael Fisher.
In game two, the Mastodons opened up a 10-7 lead but couldn't hold on. It was Patak again with another three-ace service rotation that gave the Gauchos a 23-22 lead.
IPFW fought off two game points with kills from junior outside hitter C.J. Macias and senior opposite Josh Collins, but David Kennedy put down the final kill for UC-Santa Barbara to take a 2-0 lead.
IPFW (9-4) looked poised to runaway and hide with the third game after a Macias kill made it 23-14 Mastodons.
But, Bart Kowalski was able to rattle off five straight points on serve to pull the Gauchos to within two at 29-27.
Patak and Kennedy registered kills to tie it at 29-all.
UC-Santa Barbara head coach Ken Preston made a late substitution, bringing in senior opposite Aaron Richman and it paid off.
Richman only had two kills in the match, but they gave UCSB leads of 32-31 and 33-32.
Patak put the final nail in the 'Dons coffin with his 16th kill of the contest, on match point.
Patak had a total of seven aces to go along with his kill count. Theo Brunner added 10 kills for the Gauchos, who improve to 13-6 on the season.
IPFW was led by Macias with 16 kills. Junior middle hitter Josh Stewart had eight kills and eight block assists in IPFW's team total of 17.0.
After starting the season 8-0, IPFW has now lost four of its last five matches.
The same two teams will face each other on Saturday night at the Gates Center. First serve is slated for 7:00pm.
~Dons~
