University of California, Merced – Bobcats Win Five-Set Affair on Senior Day & Clinch Postseason Berth

MERCED, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men’s volleyball team clinched a postseason berth after beating Simpson University in five sets, 3-2 (25-19, 25-22, 24-26, 24-26, 15-12) on Senior Day and in the regular-season finale on Sunday afternoon inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.

The Bobcats (9-9, 7-4) postseason berth is their third in a row and will enter the California Pacific Conference Championships set to begin on April 1 as the #3 seed.

The Bobcats seven conference wins is the second best mark in program history and they ended the regular season a season-long three-match winning streak to reach that mark.

Senior Ryan Steele led UC Merced’s efforts with 59 assists, ten digs, five kills, four blocks and a service ace. His 59 assists is tied for the second highest single-match mark in program history, behind his record of 61 assists a weekend ago. He has delivered at least 55 assists three times this year. His double-double was his second of the campaign and his ten digs put him over the single-season century mark for the fourth time in his career. Steele’s four blocks tied his season-high. Two of his blocks were solo, which moved him into a tie with Samuel Hala’ufia for first all-time in program history with 46 career solo blocks.

Chris Morikawa finished north of 20 kills for the third time this year and notched his third consecutive double-double, tallying 21 kills and eleven digs. His kills output came while operating at a .347 success rate (21/4/49) and his 21 kills put him over 600 in his career. Morikawa combined for eleven kills in just the second and third sets alone. The junior also had a service ace and a solo block.

Lance Nua smacked a career-high 17 kills on a .314 hitting percentage, one-upping his previous career-high of 16 kills from the season-opening win against UC Santa Cruz. Trevor Jurlina was good for 13 kills and a solo block. Both Jurlina and Nua passed the season century mark and have tallied double figure kills on four separate occasions this season.

Brennan Taylor pitched in seven kills and once again hit .350 or better with at least ten attempts.

Zach Brill and Kainoa Ferguson finished with 13 digs and nine digs, respectively. Ferguson’s nine digs tied his season-high. Ferguson also had a service ace to move into sole possession of second place on the program’s all-time aces chart with 52 career aces.

Other notables include four kills from Colin Ryan, three kills from Jozef…