IRVINE, Calif. – In front of an electric crowd of 1,248 fans, No. 15 UC Irvine lost a 3-1 decision to No. 4 UCLA at the Bren Events Center.

UCI goes to 3-6 on the year., while the Bruins, who won 21-25, 25-14, 25-22, 26-24, improve to 5-1 overall.

Outside hitter Francesco Sani led UCI with 13 kills and two aces followed by opposite Hilir Henno with 11 kills, two aces, seven digs and five blocks.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Middle blocker Connor Campbell hit .500 (7-1-12) to go with four block assists
>Outside hitter Cole Gillis added seven kills and four digs
>UCLA out-hit UCI .416 to .226 and held a slight 10.5-9.5 block advantage
>UCI won the service line, recording 8 aces to UCLA's 2 which came in the final two points of the match
>A trio of UCLA players had double-figure kills led by Ido David with 19. Grant Sloane totaled 16 and Merrick McHenry had 13

FIRST SET
>UCLA led 19-17 before UCI caught fire, out-scoring UCLA, 5-2 on the strength of an ace by Hilir Henno to move in front 22-20
>Following an Anteater service ace, UCI used kills by Cole Gillis and Henno  and an ace by Akhil Tangutur to clinch the set, 25-21

SECOND SET
>Three straight kills by UCLA moved the Bruins in front 6-3
>UCI had three errors in a 4-0 spurt by UCLA to open the gap to 15-8
>UCLA never looked back taking the set, 25-14
>UCI hit .040, while UCLA hit .480

THIRD SET
>UCLA jumped out to a 5-2 lead
>Two blocks and two kills helped the Bruins to a 10-5 advantage
>UCLA led 16-12 before the Anteaters rallied with two kills by Francesco Sani and one by Gillis to force a Bruin timeout and trail by just one 16-15
>A Bruin service error and back-to-back blocks, both assisted by Doug Dahm gave UCI an 18-17 lead
>UCI led 19-18 before UCLA took control on two kills, a block and a UCI attack error, 23-19
>A UCI attack sailed long, giving UCLA the 25-22 victory

FOURTH SET
>Kills by Sani and Connor Campbell put the Anteaters ahead 5-4
>UCLA moved in front 11-7 with four points in a row, started by a UCI service error and a ball that dropped in the middle of all of the attackers
>A kill by Gillis and consecutive UCLA attacks that sailed long inched UCI to 10-11
>Another UCLA attack sailed long tying the set at 14-14
>A pair of kills by Sani and an ace by Campbell gave UCI the 20-17 lead
>The Bruins would not go away and tied the set at 22-22
>A kill by Henno gave UCI set point, but following a UCLA timeout an Anteater service error was followed by the Bruins' first ace of the night, 24-25
>UCI was out of rotation on a ball that was served into the net, giving UCLA the 26-24 win

UC IRVINE HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID
"I really liked the way we played tonight. We continue to improve. At times we still play young, but those periods are getting shorter and shorter. I think in Set 3, we were down five points, we could have packed it in, but we kept battling and competing. Set 4 was a close game all the way through so I like the trajectory."

"The energy in the Bren was awesome. As far as the mainland goes, this is the best west coast venue. It's such an educated crowd, everyone is into it and a great student turnout. A couple points in here, it got so loud it felt like white noise. Pretty cool."

NOTES
>This was the first meeting with UCLA since 2018
>Sani has led UCI in kills in six matches this season
>The match had 11 total lead changes and was tied 33 times

UP NEXT
The two teams will tangle again tomorrow at Pauley Pavilion. First serve is 6:00 p.m.