SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--- UC Irvine mounted a furious rally in the fifth set, coming back from a 10-5 deficit to tie the score at 12-12 but was unable to come away with the win, falling to UC Santa Barbara, 3-2 (26-24, 15-25, 25-18, 21-25, 15-13) Saturday at the Thunderdome.
Trailing by five in the final set, the Gauchos hurt themselves, committing a series of unforced errors. Victoria Dennis, who logged a career-high 10 kills in the match, delivered a key put-away in the rally and Taylor Smith and Ella Rosenfeld stuffed Leah Sully at the net. The miscues continued for UCSB as Jaylen Villanueva's attempt fell into the net as the Anteaters drew even at 12-12. Taylor Smith knocked down a kill to tie the match again at 13-13 for UCI and Alvarez came up with a diving dig on a UCSB attempt but the ball went over to the Gaucho side and was hammered down by Sully for the 14-13 advantage. UCI was unable to put the ball away on the next play and Katey Thompson put the match away with a shot down the line.
The loss marks the fifth time UCI has dropped a five-set decision this year as the Anteaters end the season 11-22 overall and 5-13 in the Big West.
UCI out-scored UCSB 4-1 in the first set to pull away from a 9-9 tie and take a 13-10 lead with Smith delivering a pair of kills. The Gauchos knotted the score at 15-15 and then again at 16-16. Back-to-back unforced errors by UCI were followed by consecutive kills from Sully as the Gauchos claimed a 20-16 edge. The Anteaters responded with a 5-1 run to catch UCSB at 21-21. The see-saw battle continued with a two-point switch by the Gauchos (23-21) and then the Anteaters (24-24) as Aly Squires aced Kara Sherrard for the game-tying point. However, Villanueva and Britton Taylor paired up for a timely block and Villanueva found Taylor for the winning point.
The second set mirrored the first as UCI pulled away again at 9-9 to take a 12-9 lead on consecutive kills from Fleming and Squires. UCSB trimmed the gap to two at 17-15 but the Anteaters had the hot hand in Squires, whose three kills highlighted a final 8-0 run as UCI hit a match-high .366 to tie the match at a set apiece.
UCI cooled considerably in the third frame, hitting just .154 while UCSB put up a .316 clip. The Gauchos began to edge away at 16-12 and extended the lead to six at 21-15. The Anteaters were unable to cut into the deficit and dropped the set following consecutive kills from Sully, who had a match-high 25 kills.
The Anteaters came out firing in the fourth frame, hitting .354 and committing just two errors in the set. UCI jumped out to an early 7-3 lead following a solo block by Squires but the Gauchos crept back into the set at 9-8 as Sully came through with three straight kills. Sherrard tied the match at 10-10 but Dennis and Taylor Smith answered by putting away a pair of kills to give UCI a two-point lead at 12-10. Kills by Squires and Fleming extended the Anteater lead to four (17-13) but the Gauchos came back again, closing the gap to one at 18-17. Alvarez went to Dennis twice as UCI worked the lead to three (20-17) and Fleming recorded two of her 15 kills to tie the contest at a set apiece.
Senior Sarah Wilder had a career-high 17 digs in her final match while Marissa Alvarez tied a season-high with 17 digs to go along with 49 assists. Aly Squires led four Anteaters in double-digit kills with 18 while adding 15 digs for a double-double. Fleming and Smith had 15 and 13 kills, respectively with Fleming leading UCI with six block assists. Kristin Winkler bested UCSB's Taylor Formico with a match-best 35 digs, one shy of her career-high 36. Winkler ends her career as the Big West leader in digs with 2,260
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