One of the youngest players on the Lincoln Memorial roster helped deliver one of the biggest in program history.
Freshman outside attacker Shay Spadaro finished with a match-high 18 kills on a .484 attack percentage as Lincoln Memorial upset No. 7 UC Santa Barbara 25-23, 21-25, 25-22, 17-25, 15-12 on Friday in Santa Barbara, California.
Spadaro with the decisive fifth game tied at 10-10 had a kill to jumpstart a Lincoln Memorial 5-2 run that closed out the match. In addition, the outside attacker had the match-winning kill to secure the Railsplitters’ first win in program history against a top-10 nationally ranked team.
Spadaro was one of three Railsplitters with double-digit kills in the non-conference victory. Middle attacker Matthew Gentry had 12 kills on a team-best .524 attack percentage, while outside attacker Johan Negron added 10 kills.
Despite the home loss, UC Santa Barbara out-hit Lincoln Memorial .326 to .299. The Gauchos, though, were held to a match-low zero attack percentage in the fifth game.
Lincoln Memorial middle attacker Ethan Morgan had two blocks in the final game to end with a match-high five blocks.
Outside attacker Ryan Wilcox in the loss led the Gauchos with 15 kills and was one of four UC Santa Barbara players to have at least 10 kills. Middle attacker Donovan Todorov also contributed 11 kills on a match-best .714 attack percentage.