COSTA MESA – Men's volleyball returned home with a confident win over UC Merced, marking the first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation win of the season. Vanguard rolled through the first two frames 25-14 each, and staved off the Bobcat resistance in the third set 25-22 to lock in the win. The Blue and Gold hit .312, committing just 10 attack errors, which was their second-lowest tally of the year. They also had a dominant showing defensively, with 38 digs to UCM's 25. The Lions move to 5-11, 1-4 in the league. The Bobcats drop to 3-10 and 0-5.

What Happened? Vanguard made sure to separate themselves from UCM from opening serve, as they jumped out to a 5-1 start with a trifecta of kills between Grant Veldman, Cole Oliver, and Braddock Duckworth. The Bobcats had their first kill of the contest from the right pin, but faced another 3-0 VU push to cast an early timeout.

VU's first attack error came after the first interval, but was rectified with three straight kills from Logan Freemon, who picked his spots to the Merced back row. The Bobcats pulled out a service ace to squeeze their best run of the set at 6-2, pulling the visitors within one (11-10).

That was when UC Merced's miscues caught up with them, as eight Bobcat errors littered all but two of the next 10 Vanguard points. The Lions were well into the red zone when Oliver set out successive kills (22-13), and it was Micah Sybesma to dish out the first Vanguard ace of the night to close out the set one win.

The Lions hit their match-best .417 (12-2-24) in the first frame.

Set 2 Vanguard once again committed just two errors in the next period, pulling out 13 kills this time to hit .344. The Bobcats' kill count was at its lowest (6) in what stood as their toughest hitting haul at .032 (6-5-31).

The Bobcats had an early ace to take a quick lead, but it was another edition of the Veldman and Oliver show that established the set's scoring pace. The pair remained without error through the first two sets and tallied more than half of VU's kills in the period. Each added three kills to set the groundwork for a 7-5 Lion start. Veldman also pinched in an ace, going for power to fizz his serve through the Bobcat defense.

The Blue and Gold continued to make it difficult in serve receive, and netted two more aces from Oliver and Sybesma, before Duckworth triggered the media timeout on the jump and thump through the middle (15-9 Vanguard).

UC Merced attempted to make a run out of the break, but suffered four of their five attack errors for the remainder of the set, aiding Vanguard's 9-2 run and effectively eliminating any chance of VU dropping the lead. A Bobcat service error placed the frame to set point, and Freemon did the job on the bic to finish the set.

Set 3 The concluding frame had nine ties and three lead changes, with the pair of teams nearly identical in kills (9) and errors (6-5 VU). VU made the difference with a few standout passes, including some key pick-ups from Willy Wang. They also had five service errors to UCM's eight, which was instrumental late on.

VU had a 4-1 run to start with a pair of Veldman kills and ballooned it up to a 7-3 scoreline after Veldman fired his second ace of the night. Then it was UCM's turn to take a swing, bolting out a steady block across the next six rallies to close in a 4-2 run. Trailing by three (10-7 VU), UC Merced made it a 6-1 spread to take the lead and claim momentum from the Lions (12-11 UCM).

A back-and-forth scoring stream triggered three ties between the groups, but it was Wang who made a big-time dig to turn a lost point into a 2-0 run, setting VU as the first to the media timeout for the third consecutive set.

Veldman had back-to-back aces, and Sybesma was online through the middle to lead a 5-2 run out of the restart. The duo continued to inch VU forward 22-19 before Merced burned their final timeout. The Bobcats issued a 3-0 run to force VU's respite with a 22-all scoreline. It was UCM's errors that ultimately set up VU's victory in the end, with back-to-back miscues marking match-point and Veldman handing Vanguard its first MPSF win with the line shot kill.

Veldman had the game-high 11 kills with 0 errors, hitting .550 (11-0-20). He also had seven digs and four aces. Oliver was also in double-figures with 10 kills, going .412 (10-3-17) in the attack. Freemon picked up seven kills and seven digs. Wang was one dig shy of a double-double with a 24 assist, nine dig performance. Libero Jenson Wright equaled Wang's passing effort with nine digs.

What's Next? It's a rematch with UC Merced tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the Freed Center.