No. 15 UC Irvine Falls In Five On Senior Night
April 09, 2016 | Men's Volleyball
Irvine, Calif. – No. 5 Long Beach State spoiled No. 15 UC Irvine's senior night with a 3-2 (22-25, 25-19, 25-22, 13-25, 15-7) victory at the Bren to close out the regular season.
The Anteaters are 10-19 overall and 7-15 in the MPSF. UCI's postseason fate will be determined in Hawaii later tonight. A Hawaii win and UCI is in, while a Cal Baptist win gives the Lancers the postseason nod due to the tiebreaker of beating the Anteaters twice this season.
The senior class came up big in their final match at the Bren Center. Kyle Russell totaled 13 kills, four digs and two blocks, Jason Agopian recorded nine kills and four blocks and Marty Ross had a team-best five blocks to go with eight kills and a .533 (8-0-15) hitting percentage. Junior opposite Michael Saeta led UCI with 14 kills and season-high 10 digs. Freshman setter Dante Chakravorti added 44 set assists, six digs and four blocks.
Long Beach State, who will be the third seed in the MPSF Tournament, was led by TJ DeFalco's 24 kills. Kyle Ensing recorded 14 kills, while Andrew Sato collected 11 digs.
UCI controlled the first set until Long Beach State scored three in a row and tied the set at 22-22. A kill by Kyle Russell out of the back row was followed by a Forty-Niner attack that sailed long giving UCI set point 24-22 and forcing a LBSU timeout. An ace by Tamir Hershko caught the corner to end the set 25-22.
The Anteaters held an early lead in the second set, but a scrappy Forty-Niner team worked its way back on a 13-3 run and took a 21-16 lead. LBSU would win the set 25-19 on a TJ DeFalco kill.
The Forty-Niners got out to a 7-4 lead and remained in control until UCI knotted the score at 16-16 on a Saeta kill. Back-to-back Anteater attack errors followed putting the Forty-Niners back in front and they never relinquished the lead. Like the second set, a DeFalco kill gave LBSU the victory, 25-22.
UCI owned a 10-2 advantage in the fourth set and cruised to a 25-13 victory to force a fifth game.
Long Beach State started the set with an ace and an ace would give the Forty-Niners a 6-2 advantage. LBSU opened a 10-3 lead and would take the set 15-7.
