SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- UC Irvine suffered its fourth straight loss, falling to No. 18 San Diego in straight sets (25-17, 25-23, 25-16) Thursday in a non-conference match at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
Aly Squires led UCI (5-8) with 11 kills with Pauline Acres chipping in seven kills. Kristin Winkler tied for the match high with 21 digs and Mary Carls had 16 assists.
Three Torero players led the team with 12 kills apiece while out-blocking UCI 8-4.
In the first set, the Anteaters found themselves trailing by four at 10-6 on a kill by Carrie Baird but UCI rallied to tie the score at 12-12 on back-to-back kills from Acres and Squires. The Toreros, however, responded by scoring six straight to take an 18-12 advantage and held the Anteaters to five points the rest of the way.
The Anteaters delivered key blocks in the second frame to take a 10-5 advantage over the Toreros as Alexandra Hauser paired first with Shaina Olsen and then Acres to deny Amber Tatsch and Baird at the net. Consecutive errors by UCI opened the door for San Diego, which would eventually tie the score at 14-14. The Anteaters held USD off and following a Torero service error, Carls found Arielle Manz to give UCI a 20-17 edge. However, after using its final timeout, the Toreros chipped at the lead and at 23-20, jumped to a 2-0 lead by scoring the final five points of the frame.
San Diego used a .472 hitting percentage to take control of the final set. The Toreros took a 10-4 lead, out-scoring UCI 8-1. The Anteaters chipped at the lead but could get no closer than five points and USD reeled off three straight to complete the sweep.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For UC Irvine Athletics ticket information, please call (949) 824-5000 or e-mail athletics-tickets@uci.edu. For more information click here.
For information on how you can help support UC Irvine Athletics, please call (949) 824-6933 or e-mail aaf@uci.edu. For additional information, click here.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
