Santa Barbara, Calif. – No. 2 UC Irvine won the last three sets to defeat No. 6 Long Beach State, 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-13) at the UCSB/asics Invitational Friday evening.

The Anteaters improve to 3-0 and will battle UCLA at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow in the championship match.

Carson Clark had 24 kills to lead UCI followed by Jeremy Dejno with 23. UCI had eight blocks in the match.

In the first set LBSU led 7-5 before the Anteaters had a block by Carson Clark and Dan McDonnell followed by a Clark kill on an overpass to knot the score at 7-7. The Forty-Niners would extend their lead to 12-9 on a pair of service aces and never trail again. UCI closed within 24-23 but an Anteater service went into the net to give Long Beach the 25-23 victory.

After LBSU won the second set 25-21, UCI led 19-18 in the third before a Clark kill was followed by a block by Scott Kevorken and Daniel Stork to extend the gap to 21-19.  UCI took the third 25-21.

UCI held the 15-14 advantage in the fourth when a kill and ace by Jeremy Dejno pushed the score to 17-14. UCI would go on to take the set 25-16.

In the fifth, UCI used a LBSU service error combined with Kevorken solo block and service ace by Austin D'Amore to take a 9-5 lead. A UCI dig error and a Forty-Niner kill narrowed the margin to 9-7, but UCI would take the next two points on kills by Dejno and Clark. Long Beach would battle back to tie the score at 13-13 before UCI ended the match on a kill by Clark and a Long Beach set error.

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