Chicago, Ill. – Sophomore outside hitter Joel Schneidmiller had a career-high 28 kills as No. 4 UC Irvine rallied from two games down to beat No. 9 Loyola University Chicago 3-2 (30-32, 16-25, 33-31, 25-22, 15-13) at Gentile Arena.

The Anteaters won the season opener for the fourth straight year.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Schneidmiller led all players with 28 kills to go with two aces, 10 digs and three block assists
>Middle blocker Austin Wilmot also posted a career-high with eight kills. The sophomore totaled four total blocks
>Outside hitter Aaron Koubi added 12 kills and tied his career-high with 11 digs followed by opposite Karl Apfelbach with 10 kills
>Middle blocker Scott Stadick totaled four blocks and five kills, while libero David Parker had a team-best 12 digs
>Setter Dante Chakravorti tallied 53 set assists and eight digs
>Loyola had a trio of players in double-figure kills led by Collin Mahan with 16. Will Tischler had 15 kills and 12 digs and Kyle Piekarski had 12 kills

TURNING POINTS
SET 1
>A soft dump over by Scott Stadick and an ace by Joel Schneidmiller gave UCI a late 18-15 advantage
>Three consecutive Anteater attack errors followed to knot the match at 18 all
>A kill by Aaron Koubi, a Rambler service error and confusion on a dig that fell on the Loyola side gave UCI a 23-21 lead
>UCI held set point on a Schneidmiller kill, 24-22 when the Ramblers took control scoring the next three points to tie the score at 25
>Teams would trade points until the Ramblers used one of five UCI service errors plus a kill by Garret Zolg to take the set 32-30

SET 2
>Loyola went on a 6-0 run to take a 11-8 lead
>The Ramblers went on a 4-0 run, which included three straight UCI attack errors to extend the lead to 22-14
>UCI hit just .043 in the 25-16 loss

SET 3
>UCI trailed 23-21 when the Anteaters rallied with three straight points on a Loyola service error, a kill by Alexandre Nsakanda and a Rambler attack that went long, 24-23
>Two consecutive blocks by Loyola reversed the match with the Ramblers holding a 25-24 advantage
>Again the teams would give fans bonus points with a Karl Apfelbach kill and a kill by Schneidmiller out of the back row to give UCI the 33-31 victory
>The Anteater offense got back on track, hitting .405 (22-5-42)
>The set saw 29 ties and nine lead changes

SET 4
>A Loyola kill and a UCI attack error helped the Ramblers sneak out to an 8-5 lead
>Back-to-back Anteater errors gave the Ramblers a 12-8 advantage
>A 3-0 run got the Anteaters to 12-11, but Loyola scored the next two to bring the margin back to 14-11
>A block by Stadick and Apfelbach tied the set at 15-15
>Kills by Apfelbach and Koubi put the Anteaters up 19-17
>A Loyola attack error was followed by a huge block by Schneidmiller and Stadick for the UCI win, 25-22

SET 5
>UCI jumped out to a 4-1 lead on kills by Koubi and Schneidmiller and an ace by Koubi
>Another block by Schneidmiller and Stadick put UCI up 6-2  
>The Ramblers rallied and closed to 9-8, but a pair of Apfelbach kills gave UCI the 11-9 lead
>A kill by Austin Wilmot gave UCI set point 14-12 then after a Loyola kill, Schneidmiller put away the match winner in the corner, 15-13

NOTES
>UCI snaps Loyola's 16 match home winning streak
> Tonight marked the debut of Alexandre Nsakanda (5 kills), Jonny Bowles (1 ace) and Brian Garcia (1 kill and 4 set assists)
>The teams combined for 49 service errors
>It was UCI's first visit to Gentile Arena since 2014

UP NEXT
UCI is in action tomorrow (Jan. 5) at Lewis beginning at 5:00 p.m. PT