Box Score LONG BEACH, Calif. – Outside hitter Aaron Koubi tied his career-high with 21 kills, but it was not enough as No. 1 Long Beach State edged No. 4 UC Irvine 3-2 (22-25, 25-15, 25-16, 21-25, 15-9) at the Walter Pyramid Friday.

The Anteaters snap a six-match winning streak and go to 17-6 overall and 3-2 in the Big West. Long Beach remains undefeated at 20-0 and 5-0 in the Big West.

Koubi recorded 21 kills and hit .410 (21-5-39). The outside hitter put UCI on his back in the fourth set with eight kills on 13 swings and no errors. He also added a season-high nine digs and three block assists.

Reigning Big West Player of the Week Karl Apfelbach ended with 10 kills, seven digs and three blocks, while middle blocker Scott Stadick had nine kills, and five block assists. Libero David Parker had a season-high 14 digs and setter Dante Chakravorti went 4-0-4 in kills with 36 set assists and eight digs.

The Forty-Niners were led by TJ DeFalco's 22 kills, five aces and five total blocks. Kyle Ensing added 13 kills and Josh Tuaniga totaled 48 set assists, two aces and 11 digs.

Long Beach scored the first point of the match then UCI scored the next five, three on Aaron Koubi kills, 5-1. A Koubi ace would make it 9-4 and UCI would continue to lead 16-12 on an Apfelbach ace. An Apfelbach kill followed by a Forty-Niner error give UCI set point 24-18. Long Beach State would score the next three points, two on TJ DeFalco aces to narrow the margin to 24-22, but Scott Stadick would put a ball away to end the set 25-22.

Long Beach State controlled the second set, winning 25-15. The Forty-Niners would score five straight points to put the set out of reach at 21-13.

UCI had an early 3-1 lead and would hold the 11-8 advantage until LBSU went on a 7-0 run to take a 15-11 lead. Long Beach would then cruise to a third set victory, 25-16. UCI hit .000 for the set and had seven attack errors, two receiving errors and six service errors to help the Forty-Niners.

A kill by Stadick started a 5-0 run that included kills by Apfelbach and Koubi and two Forty-Niner errors to give UCI a 16-12 lead in the fourth set.  LBSU would close to 22-21 on a TJ De Falco kill, but kills by Apfelbach and Koubi gave the Anteaters set point, 24-21. Following a LBSU timeout De Falco swing went wide giving UCI a 25-21 victory.

LBSU would lead 5-4 in the deciding fifth set before a UCI service error was followed by a kill and ace by De Falco to extend the Forty-Niner lead to 8-4.  Back-to-back kills by Long Beach moved the margin to 11-6 and the Forty-Niners would go on to win the set 15-9 and the match.  

The fun continues with the two teams meeting again tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center.

NOTES: UCI is the only team to take Long Beach to five sets this year…The Anteaters hit a season-low .197 (49-23-132)…UCI had 19 service errors, the second most this year…UCI had a season-high 54 digs…Parker, the Big West Defensive Player of the Week, has recorded kills in double-digit the last three matches…Tucker Pikula has come off the bench to fire an ace in each of the last two matches.