HONOLULU, Hawaii – Third-seeded UC Irvine dropped a 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-18) loss to second-seeded Hawaii in a semifinal match of the Big West Championship at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Anteaters snapped a four-match winning streak and go to 18-11 on the year. Hawaii, who is 26-2 overall advances to play Long Beach State tomorrow in the championship match.

Hawaii hit .441 (41-11-68) to UCI's .117 (27-18-77), the third lowest offensive performance of the season.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Opposite Karl Apfelbach led the Anteaters with 12 kills plus an ace
>Outside hitters Joel Schneidmiller and Aaron Koubi each added seven kills. Schneidmiller had two aces
>Setter Dante Chakravorti recorded 21 set assist and led the team with four digs and three blocks
>Hawaii's Rado Parapunov hit .857, recording 12 kills with no errors in 14 attempts

TURNING POINTS
FIRST SET
>UH created some early separation with consecutive kills, 4-2
>A kill by Aaron Koubi and an ace by Karl Apfelbach knotted the score at 4 all
>A 4-0 run by the Rainbow Warriors, which included three Anteater attack errors, one a block, put UH up 17-12
> Back-to-back aces by Rado Parapunov gave Hawaii the 25-17 win
>UH hit .571 (13-1-21). UCI hurt itself with five service errors

SET TWO
>Hawaii would jump out to a 7-1 lead with the help of four UCI miscues
>A 3-1 spurt, which included UCI's first block of the match, kept UCI close, 14-9
>A Joel Schneidmiller kill made it 20-15, but UCI could not make a late rally as UH would win the set 25-16 on a UCI service error
>The Anteaters hit .050

SET THREE
>Hawaii out-scored UCI 5-1 to give the Warriors a 6-3 lead
>A kill by Scott Stadick and a UH attack error inched the Anteaters to 7-6
>A block by Patrick Sohacki and Schneidmller was followed by a kill by Apfelbach to close to 11-9
>A Schneidimiller ace made it 12-11, but UH would score the next six to extend the lead back out to 18-11
>Two Hawaii attack errors on set point delayed the 25-18 victory

NOTES
>UCI and Hawaii are now tied at 2-2 in post-season matches
>The Anteaters were out-blocked for the first time in five matches as UH owned a 9.5-6.0 advantage at the net
>Joel Schneidimiller leads the squad with 46 service aces, moving in to a tie for seventh in the UCI season record books