LONG BEACH, Calif. --- UC Irvine women's water polo defeated No. 10 Long Beach State for a third time this season, this time in a Big West match Friday night at Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center, 11-7.

UCI (15-5, 3-0) began with their usual aggressive opening period putting five goals in. Tara Prentice's goal at the 5:19 mark gave UCI the 2-1 lead, and they never looked back adding goals by Jessica Lynch and two from Elena Flynn to end the period up, 5-2.

Long Beach State (11-12, 0-2) closed the gap to one goal after no offense for the first 4:39 of the second period. The 'Eaters clung to their 5-4 lead before Piper Smith netted her second goal with 49 seconds to go in the half for a 6-4 lead.

Again the lead bobbed to within a goal in the third period before Isabel Rack and Jessica Lynch scored in succession to close out the period up, 9-6.

LBSU scored early in the fourth period with 7:30 left in the game, but that's the last one they'd get, and UCI closed the win out with strikes from Flynn and Toni Shackelford down the stretch to win, 11-7.

Elena Flynn led all scorers with three, now her second straight hat trick and third game of three or more goals on the season. Smith and Lynch also added two-goal games while Tara Prentice scored one goal and now stands 10 from the all-time program record. Goalkeeper Faith Tedesco again earned the win stopping eight shots and lowering her goals-against-average.

The Anteaters have now won 22 straight matches in the series and have yet to drop at match at Long Beach State since 2004.

No. 6 UCI continues to climb in the Big West standings with a 3-0 record along with a 15-5 mark overall. The 'Eaters take a brief detour for its final non-conference matchups next week with trips to Cal and Cal State East Bay scheduled for Saturday, April 2.