SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Middle blocker Scott Stadick broke his own season record for solo blocks in No. 3 UC Irvine's 3-2 loss to No. 12 UC Santa Barbara (25-23, 23-25, 25-23, 23-25, 13-15) at Rob Gym Thursday evening.

Stadick recorded seven total blocks, including three solos to give him 26 on the year. He topped his old school mark of 25 set in 2017. He also added 10 kills.

UCI opposite Karl Apfelbach had a team-high 17 kills and three aces followed by Aaron Koubi with 16 kills. Outside hitter JB Kam came off the bench to tie his career-high with eight kills and five digs in three sets. Libero David Parker had a match-high 13 digs, while setter Dante Chakravorti posted 57 set assists.

UCSB (11-11, 4-5) was led by Roy McFarland with 16 kills.

UCI (19-8, 5-4) led UCSB in hitting percentage (.303-.280), aces (8-2), digs (48-41) and blocks (10-9). The Anteaters hurt themselves with 27 service errors, a season-high.

Back-to-back Gaucho errors gave UCI its first lead 6-5 in the first set then a kill by Karl Apfelbach and a block by Apfelbach and Stadick made it 9-6. An Ace by Dante Chakravorti extended UCI's lead to 15-10. A block by Joel Schneidmiller started a 3-0 spurt that was capped by an Aaron Koubi kill, 22-16. The Anteaters held set point 24-19 before UCSB peeled off four in a row to force a UCI timeout, 24-23. A Gaucho service error handed UCI the 25-23 victory. UCI hit .500 (13-2-22).

UCSB scored four unanswered in the second set to lead 11-8. UCI clawed their way back in and a Gaucho ball-handling error tied the set at 14 all. The Gauchos would score the next two, 16-14 and continue to lead 21-19. Kills by Stadick and Schneidmiller knotted the score at 21-21 and the teams would each score to make it 23-23. UCSB would use a kill and an Anteater attack error to win the set 25-23.

UCSB would hold a 13-10 lead before UCI had kills by Apfelbach and Koubi and a solo block by Stadick to even the third set at 13-13. After a kill by UCSB, UCI would use a kill by Stadick, two UCSB setting errors and an ace by Apfelbach to take a 16-14 lead. After a Gaucho timeout, Koubi had a pair of kills to extend the lead to 18-14. The Anteaters would lead 19-15 only to watch UCSB score three straight to close to 19-18. UCSB would catch the Anteaters at 21-21 then at 22-22, Koubi would put away two kills to give UCI the 24-22 advantage. Following a UCSB kill, Koubi would hammer down the set winner 25-23.

A 3-0 run which included two kills by JB Kam moved UCI in front 8-4. A block by Stadick and Koubi gave UCI the 12-8 advantage. UCI would continue to lead until UCSB would recorded back to back kills to take the 19-18 advantage. Two UCSB attack errors and a kill by Koubi forced a timeout as the Anteater went to 21-19. The lead was short lived as the Gauchos would score the next four points, 23-21. UCI rallied with the next two, only to watch UCSB score the final two, 25-23 and force a fifth set.

UCI used a 4-1 run which included two kills by Stadick and an ace by Koubi, 6-3. UCSB would tie the set at 8-8 then score three in a row to take a 12-10 lead. A UCI service error put UCSB at set point then after a kill by JB Kam another service error gave the Gauchos a 15-13 win and the match.

The teams will play again Saturday (Apr. 14) at 7:00 p.m.at the Bren Events Center in the regular season finale.

NOTES: UCI is now 4-4 in five set matches this season…Chakravorti's 57 set assists are his second highest total of the year…Koubi has recorded double-figure kills 12 times this season…Parker has recorded double-digit digs in six of the last seven matches…Apfelbach leads the team with 34 aces…Kam also had eight kills in four sets against Pepprdine on Jan. 14.