![\"Hawai\u2018i\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/v13.png\")
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Next Match:<\/p>\n
at Hawai\u2018i<\/p>\n
9\/6\/2026 | 8 PM<\/p>\n
\n Sep. 06 (Sun) \/ 8 PM
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\n at\u00a0Hawai\u2018i
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History <\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n HONOLULU\u2014UC San Diego women’s volleyball dropped a five-set battle to Utah Tech, 3-2, on Friday evening in Stan Sheriff Center. The Tritons (2-3) nearly pulled off a reverse sweep in their second match of the Outrigger Invitational, falling to the Trailblazers (3-2) by set scores of 19-25, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22 and 13-15.
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\nIreland McNees<\/a> recorded a team-high 21 kills and 22 points, adding nine digs. Molly McCluskey<\/a> also scored 22 points, finishing with 18 kills on .457 hitting, 10 digs and four block assists. Gia Rivera<\/a> also tallied double-digit kills with 13. Paulina Baillie<\/a> collected a team-high 15 digs and added four assists, while Dillyn Griffin<\/a> collected 11. Lucia Barroso<\/a> posted seven block assists with six kills and two service aces. Marleena Catalan<\/a> and Brynne McGhie<\/a> recorded 23 and 21 assists respectively, with McGhie also tallying 12 digs.
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\nHOW IT HAPPENED
\nThe Tritons opened the first set with a 6-1 lead, getting two early blocks involving Barroso and McCluskey along with a McCluskey ace and McNees kills. The Trailblazers pulled even at 10-10, and the Tritons briefly went back ahead 16-15 on a Rivera kill from Baillie. The Trailblazers outscored UC San Diego, 9-2, down the stretch to finish the set with the late edge, taking it 25-19.
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\nUC San Diego began the second set with four straight points on Griffin’s serve, getting a Griffin ace along with kills from McNees and McCluskey for a 4-0 lead. The Trailblazers later led 16-8, and the Tritons’ late block points from Rivera and Yasemin Elmas<\/a>, then Elmas and Madison Johnson<\/a>, helped narrow the score to 23-18. However, the Trailblazers closed out the set, 25-20, to lead the match, 2-0.
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\nOnce again, the Tritons built an early lead in the third set with an efficient attack, tallying six quick kills to lead, 8-4. UC San Diego created separation by stretching a 16-11 lead to 19-11 on a McNees kill, a McCluskey service ace and a Catalan\/Barroso block. The Tritons closed the third set by stopping the Trailblazers’ late three-point run at 23-19, getting a McCluskey kill before McNees finished the 25-19 set.
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\nThe teams kept things close in the fourth set, battling to a 11-11 tie. After a Barroso kill put the Tritons ahead 12-11, Catalan served two aces during a four-point run that pushed the lead to 16-11. Utah Tech moved within 22-21 late, but Johnson answered with a kill, and Barroso and Rivera combined on a block to bring up set point. The Tritons closed the set 25-22 on a Trailblazers attack error to force a fifth set.
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\nAfter falling behind, 5-1, the Tritons fought back late in the fifth set, with McCluskey and McNees kills tying it at 13-13. McCluskey also had kills at 8-11 and 11-12 and teamed with Barroso on a block during the push. The Trailblazers answered with the final two points to take the set, 15-13, and the match, 3-2.
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\nTRITON TIDBITS<\/p>\n
\n\tMolly McCluskey<\/a> and Brynne McGhie<\/a> both recorded their third double-double of the season.
\n\tIreland McNees<\/a> recorded career highs in points (22) and kills (21).
\n\tFreshman Gia Rivera<\/a> recorded her first double-figure effort with 13 kills.
\n\tMarleena Catalan<\/a> matched her career high with 23 assists in her first appearance of the season.
\n\tIt was the first five-set match of the season for the Tritons.
\n\tUC San Diego is now 0-1 in the all-time series with Utah Tech.
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\nUP NEXT
\nUC San Diego will have a day off before their final match of the Outrigger Invitational, facing the host Hawai’i on Sunday at 8 p.m. PT. The match will be streamed for subscribers on Mountain West+ and live statistics will be available for via UCSDTritons.com.
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\nAbout UC San Diego Athletics
\nAfter two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world’s preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Next Match: at Hawai\u2018i 9\/6\/2026 | 8 PM
Sep. 06 (Sun) \/ 8 PM
…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-454265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}