STOCKTON, Calif. – No. 6 UC Irvine could not overcome a seven goal first half deficit in an 11-5 loss to No. 5 Pacific at the Chris Kjeldsen Pool Friday night.

The UC Irvine (10-5, 1-1) offense struggled, shooting .167 (5-30), while the Tigers (13-3, 2-0) were .333 (11-33) from the field with 13 steals.

Senior Lovre Milos led the Anteaters with three goals, two steals and an assist. Senior Antoine Lena and freshman Fynn Schuetze scored the other two goals for the Anteaters. Goalkeeper Matej Matijevic recorded 13 saves.

Engin Ege Colak put away a game-high four goals to lead Pacific. Luke Pavillard and Kale Ai scored two each in the win, while John Hedges had 14 saves in the cage.     

UCI's Antoine Lena scored a power play goal on a pass from Lovre Milos to get the scoring started at 5:54. Pacific would quickly score back-to-back goals by Engin Ege Colak (5:00) and Luke Pavillard (4:38). Milos fired a shot to knot the score on the next trip down (4:19), 2-2 before the Tigers would score three consecutive goals to take a 5-2 lead in to the second period.

An exclusion on UCI gave Pacific an early (7:36) power play goal in the second period before another goal after a steal increased Pacific's lead to 7-2 (6:45).  The teams would trade possessions until Ai scored his second of the night at 2:16 to push the Pacific lead to 8-2. Following an exclusion Andrea De Nardi scored at set after an exclusion (:11) to give the Tigers the 9-2 advantage at the half. The Anteaters were shooting .154 (2-13) compared to Pacific's .474 (9-19) after the first 16 minutes.

Milos finally stopped the scoring drought with a goal to start the third quarter (6:35), only to watch the Tigers score again on a penalty shot at 6:15, 10-3. Following a Tiger exclusion, Milos would strike again with a goal at 2:37 (10-4).

A power play goal by Fynn Schuetze narrowed the margin to 10-5 at 5:10 of the fourth quarter, but Ege Colak scored on the next trip down the pool (4:53) to keep the advantage at six (11-5).

The Anteaters continue on the road with a 2:00 p.m. contest tomorrow at No. 3 Cal.

SCORING BY PERIOD
UC Irvine             2-0-2-1-5
Pacific                 5-4-1-1-11
 
SCORING
UC Irvine: Milos 3, Lena 1, Schuetze 1
Pacific: Ege Colak 4, Pavillard 2, Ai 2, De Nardi 1, Thumwood 1, Schmidt 1

GOALKEEPING
UCI: Matejevic 13
Pacific: Hedges 14