"We have an extremely deep bench, probably the deepest in the country," Carroll said the 'Eaters, who were picked to finish second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation preseason poll. "I'm trying not to worry about making mistakes and just trying to go out there and have fun. I just want to be free. In the past, I feel I have worried too much about making mistakes and being taken out. I can't be worried about being subbed out."
Carroll hit .304 for the match and was one of three Anteaters with two ace serves.
UCI had seven aces in the match, to go with 15 service errors. The latter stat is one Coach John Speraw hopes to clean up.
"I thought we were sloppy, sloppy," said Speraw, who also mentioned transition struggles and a setting rhythm with returning senior All-American opposite Carson Clark (eight kills and a .161 hitting percentage) as areas of concern.
"I think we served pretty well tonight, but the stat I'm looking most closely at is our error percentage," Speraw said. "I just don't know that, against good teams, we can serve the ball out as much as we do and win. Also, we're not hitting the ball super hard. We're a long way from where we want to be."
Sophomore Jeremy Dejno boomed two aces, but missed three serves, while Clark had one ace and five service errors. Senior middle blocker Austin D'Amore had two aces and shared team-high honors with three block assists.
Dejno chipped in eight kills with one solo block and two block assists, while senior middle blocker Dan McDonnell had four kills and three block assists.
Sophomore setter Daniel Stork had 34 assists and a team-best 11 digs, while junior libero Will Thomas had nine digs for the winners, who avenged a season-opening loss to the Lancers last season.
