IRVINE, Calif. – Freshman Onye Ofoegbu's career night was not enough as UC Irvine fell to Cal State Fullerton 3-1 (19-25, 25-17, 25-18, 30-28) at the Bren Events Center Saturday.

Ofoegbu continued to dominate in the middle, pounding a career-best 17 kills, hitting .519 (17-3-27) to go with four total blocks.

UCI could not maintain the momentum of the upset over a ranked team, going to 4-13 overall and 1-4 in Big West action. The Titans pick up their first Big West win (1-4) of the year and go to 9-7 overall.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Ofoegbu wasn't the only freshman to record a career night as setter Kelly Negron had a career-best 54 set assists and 14 digs, her sixth double-double of the year
>Freshman outside hitter Joy Umeh also had a career night with eight kills
>It was a balanced offensive attack with Makayla Wolfe adding a season-high 13 kills followed by Abby Marjama and Cassie Stewart with 10 kills each
>Cal State Fullerton was led by Julia Crawford's match-high 20 kills and 17 digs 

TURNING POINTS
FIRST SET
>The teams remained close until UCI used kills by Abby Marjama and Onye Ofoegbu and a block by the duo to take a 10-7 lead
>Three consecutive Titan errors extended the advantage to 16-10
>A block by Ofoegbu was followed by a Titan attack error to give UCI the set 25-19

SECOND SET
>The Titans would open a 12-7 lead before the Anteaters rallied to close to 14-13 on a kill by Marjama and a Titan attack error
>Cal State Fullerton would answer with the next three points to start an 8-2 spurt, 22-15 and go on to win the set 25-17

THIRD SET
>CSUF scored nine in a row, six on UCI mistakes to jump ahead 16-8
>The Anteaters could not recover, falling 25-17

FOURTH SET
>UCI would come back on a 7-2 run and tie the set at 20-20 and take the lead on a Titan error and a Marjama kill, 22-20
>CSUF would use a UCI service error and a kill by Danielle Jefferies to tie the set at 24-24 and following a UCI timeout, Julia Crawford had an ace to give the Titans set point, 25-24
>An Ofoegbu kill kept the Anteaters alive 25-25
>A kill by Makayla Wolf gave the advantage back to UCI, 26-25
 >The teams would trade points until, Fullerton used two UCI attack errors and a kill by Crawford to cement the victory, 30-28

 NOTES
>UCI has out-blocked its opponents in four straight contests
>The victory for CSUF snaps a 12-match losing streak against the Anteaters and is the first conference win for Cal State Fullerton since 2017 snapping a 22-match conference losing streak
>Chloe Owens led the Anteaters with 16 digs

UP NEXT
>UCI will travel to CSUN next Friday (Oct. 18) and Long Beach State Saturday (Oct. 19).