LONG BEACH, Calif. – UC Irvine dropped a 3-0 decision against No. 2 Long Beach State (22-25, 18-25, 20-25) at the Walter Pyramid Friday night.

UCI (7-9) snapped a four-match winning streak, hitting a season-low .104 (34-24-96). LBSU out-blocked UCI 14.5-3. After recording 12 aces the night before, the Anteaters had just one tonight.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Sophomore Francesco Sani and freshman Hilir Henno led the team with 11 kills. Henno had a team-best seven digs
>Outside hitter Cole Gillis added six kills and the team's lone ace
>Spencer Olivier and Alex Nikolov topped the Beach (11-3) with 11 kills

FIRST SET
>LBSU had five straight to open a 14-10 gap
>UCI would close to 19-20 on a Akhil Tangutur kill and LBSU attack error
>The Beach would answer with the next three, 23-19
>Long Beach State took the set 25-22

SECOND SET
>LBSU had the first three points of the set before Hilir Henno landed a kill
>A Beach service error was followed by a Francesco Sani kill to narrow the margin to 5-7
>UCI had three in a row on another LBSU service into the net and back-to-back kills by Henno and Sani, 8-9
>A kill by Henno and a LBSU attack that sailed long tied the set at 11-11
>After the teams traded points, Long Beach State would score the next four to create some separation, 16-12
>A solo block and then one assisted by Doug Dahm tried to rally the Anteaters, 18-21, but LBSU answered again with the next four to win the set 25-18

THIRD SET
>Once again Long Beach jumped out early, leading 5-2
>A kill by Sani and a Beach attack error got UCI back in the set, 5-6
>After a long rally with bodies flying around, Gillis ended the play with a kill off hands, 8-9
>A kill by Connor Campbell and a pair from Sani kept it close, 11-12
>Long Beach out-scored UCI 5-1 to move the score to 21-15
>The Beach would win on a serve that dribbled over the net, 25-20

NOTES
>Aiden Wolf-Nielsen made his season debut, adding a kill

UP NEXT
In a quick turnaround, UCI will host George Mason in the final regular season non-conference match tomorrow (Mar. 12) at 7:00 p.m. at the Bren Center.