IRVINE, Calif. – No. 9 UC Irvine sent its seniors off with a sweep of No. 3 UC Santa Barbara in the final home match at the Bren Events Center Friday.

The Anteaters out-hit UCSB .374-.174 and out-blocked the Gauchos 10.5-4.5. Opposite Karl Apfelbach out-served UC Santa Barbara 4-3.

The teams are now tied in the Big West standings at 4-5 with a final match to follow Saturday to determine third place. UCI goes to 16-10 overall, while UCSB is 17-8 on the year.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID
"Senior night is always a special night. In addition to the body of work and the influence on our program that these seniors have amassed over the years, these seniors should be proud of this win tonight."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>UCI welcomed back outside hitter Joel Schnedimiller who led the squad with 14 kills, while hitting .455. The sophomore also added five digs and two block assists
>Seniors Karl Apfelbach and Aaron Koubi followed with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. The duo also totaled 12 digs each, which was a career-high for Koubi
>Middle blockers Scott Stadick and Patrick Sohacki each had five kills with Stadick posting a match-high six total blocks and Sohacki notching four
>Senior Dante Chakravorti tallied 35 set assists and five block assists, while senior David Parker had nine digs
>UCSB's Spencer Fredrick had a match-high 15 kills and 13 digs

TURNING POINTS
FIRST SET
>Joel Schneidmiller didn't take long to make his comeback known as he had two kills on a 3-1 UCI run to give the Anteaters a 9-5 lead
>UCI would continue to lead 14-11 before the Gauchos would catch fire, out-scoring the Anteaters 7-1 to take an 18-15 lead
>The Anteaters would tie it at 20-20 on a UCSB attack error only to watch the Gauchos take the next two and regain the lead 22-20
>UCSB had set point 24-22, but a kill by Schneidmiller and a UCSB attack error knotted the score at 24s
>A kill by Aaron Koubi and a block by Scott Stadick and Dante Chakravorti ended the set 29-27

SECOND SET
>Apfelbach had a kill then three consecutive aces to give UCI the 7-6 lead
>Three straight blocks by Stadick, including two solos, started an 8-1 spurt for the Anteaters putting UCI up 16-8
>The Anteaters kept the pedal down and rolled to a 25-12 victory
>UCI had five blocks in the set and hit a season-high .722 (13-0-18)

THIRD SET
>UCSB would score the first two points of the set then watched UCI explode for the next five, three on kills by Apfelbach and one a block by Apfelbach and Patrick Sohacki, 5-2
>A 5-1 run which included another kill and ace by Apfelbach moved the gap to 10-4
>UCSB would close to 18-15, but UCI would score the next two on a kill and block assist by Schneidmiller
>The Gauchos would hang around and get to 23-21 on a triple block and again at 24-22 on a kill by Spencer Fredrick, but the UCSB would end the match with back-to-back service errors to hand UCI a 25-22 win

NOTES
>Schniedmiller made his first appearance since March 9 against BYU
>It is the 13^th time this season Schniedmiller led the team in kills
>UCI won its fifth 3-0 match of the year
>It's the 17th time UCI has out-blocked an opponent this season and is the third straight match the Anteaters have owned the net
 
UP NEXT
>UCI and UCSB will meet again tomorrow in Santa Barbara. First serve from Rob Gym is 7:00 p.m.