SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Cal Lutheran men's volleyball put up a fight against Division I opponent UC Santa Barbara, but ultimately fell short and dropped the match 25-27, 20-25, 18-25.

Ben Weber led the Kingsmen in the loss with a team-high 10 kills (.450 pct) and five blocks, followed by Connor Crawford and Jordan Cooper's six kills apiece.

Defensively, Cooper led with 10 digs and Borys Horiuk and Parker Brown collected three blocks each.

Cal Lutheran kept things close in the first set, hitting .211 percent with just one less kill than UCSB (.212 pct). The Gauchos picked it up in sets two and three, however, hitting over .400 in both to take the game.

The Kingsmen worked their way to a four point lead in the first with kills from Michael Stahl, Cooper, and Weber. Parker Brown and Weber had a big block at the Gaucho's match point to even it at 24 and a Weber kill would make it 25-25 before UCSB stole the match on a service ace.

Cal Lutheran will take on one more Division I squad this week, this time in top-10 ranked CSUN. First serve is set for 6 PM in Northridge.