LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The senior class carried the load as No. 10 UC Irvine upended No. 7 UC Santa Barbara 11-8 at the Mountain Pacific Invitational held at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center Friday.

UC Irvine wins its sixth straight and improves to 7-2 on the year. The Anteaters will face unbeaten USC (10-0) at 11:30 a.m. in the first of two games tomorrow.

Senior Milos Lovre paced the Anteaters with five goals and two steals. Milos has recorded five or more goals in each of the last four games.

Senior goalkeeper Matej Matijevic tied his career-high 18 saves in the win.

Seniors Kyle Trush and Brendan Duffy recorded a season-high two goals apiece, while seniors Robby Stiefel and Antoine Lena each snatched two steals, with senior Ryan Warde adding two assists and a steal.

Junior Jack Trush and freshman Fynn Schuetze each added a goal for the Anteaters.

Boris Jovanovic had a team-high two goals for UC Santa Barbara.

UCI goalie Matej Matijevic was peppered with shots early, making four first period saves before UCSB's Adam Lott scored at 2:11. Lovre Milos quickly returned the favor with a goal at 1:57 to knot the score at 1-1 then posted another goal at 1:11 to put
UCI in front 2-1. A Gaucho goal with 21 seconds left ended the period with the teams even at 2-2.

UC Santa Barbara scored right after the sprint at 7:25 then Kyle Trush added his second goal of the season at 5:05 (3-3). A Gaucho goal at 4:49 was followed by an exclusion which Jack Trush took advantage of, scoring on a pass from his brother at 4:12. Milos took advantage of another power play opportunity finding the back of the cage at 1:32 to put UCI back in front 5-4. Kyle Trush (0:30) increased the margin to 6-4 at the end of the second period.

UCSB once again opened the period scoring a goal at 5:14 to narrow the margin to 6-5 before UCI had back-to-back goals by Fynn Schuetze (4:56) and Milos (1:50) to extend the lead to 8-5.

In the final period, Brendan Duffy got on the board with a goal at 7:18, 9-5. Head coach Marc Hunt called a timeout after a Gaucho exclusion at 6:39 when Milos added his fifth goal at 6:23 with a man advantage, 10-6. UCSB's Boris Javanovic would record his second goal of the day (5:10) then a minute later Duffy would add his second goal, 11-6. Mitch Young (2:51) and Josh Jordan (2:07) scored for the Gauchos to make things interesting, but that ended the scoring as UCI went on to the 11-8 victory.

SCORING BY PERIOD
UC Irvine                           2-4-2-3-11
UC Santa Barbara             2-2-1-3-8

SCORING
UCI: Milos 5, K. Trush 2, Duffy 2, J. Trush 1, Schuetze 1,
UCSB: Lott 1, Jovanovic 1, Cotterill 1, Fellner 1, Hauschild 1, Young 1, Jordan 1.

GOALKEEPING
UCI: Matijevic 18
UCSB: Barrios 7