IRVINE, Calif. – Francesco Sani had a career-high 28 kills, but it was not enough as No. 10 UC San Diego out-lasted No. 13 UC Irvine (25-23, 25-27, 25-16, 20-25, 15-8) at the Bren Events Center Saturday.

Sani moved over to the opposite position and promptly put down the most kills in the Big West and eighth most in the country this year. The sophomore also had four digs and three total blocks.

The Tritons (11-7, 3-2) out-hit UCI .336-.258. UCSD also had more digs (33-29) and aces (6-4), but UCI (8-11, 1-3) held the advantage in blocks, 11.5-6.5.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Cole Gillis added 13 kills, hitting .440
>Outside hitter Akhil Tangutur got the start and had a season-high 10 kills and five block assists
>Middle blocker Aiden Wolf-Nielsen posted a career-high eight total blocks (1 solo, 7 assisted)
>Libero Cole Power matched his career-best with a match-high 14 digs
>UCSD was led by Kyle McCauley with 21 kills

FIRST SET
>UCSD had an ace and a kill to make the first move 4-2, but UCI answered with a 4-1 run to go up 6-5
>A kill by Akhil Tangutur and a block by Tangutur and Aiden Wolf-Nielsen got UCI to the media timeout leading 15-12
>The timeout was just what UCSD needed as they rattled off five straight points to take a 17-15 lead
>Tied at 23-23, UCI had a service and attack error to hand the Tritons the 25-23 win

SECOND SET
>UCSD got out to an early 7-2 lead
>A triple block by Francesco Sani, Wolf-Nielsen and Tangutur got UCI to 5-8
>The Tritons led 18-13 before Sani caught fire with an ace and kill to bring the Anteaters to 16-18
>Kills by Wolf-Nielsen, Cole Gillis and Sani tied the set at 19-19
>A kill and ace by Kyle McCauley helped UCSD to a 23-21 advantage
>A Sani kill and a Triton attack error knotted the set again, 23-23
>A solo block by Wolf-Nielsen and then another by Wolf-Nielsen and Tangutur ended the set 27-25

THIRD SET
>It was UCSD once again jumping out quick with a 12-5 lead
>The Tritons were hitting .800 (8-0-10) to UCI's .000 (6-6-15) forcing the Anteaters to call their second timeout, 16-6
>UCI never challenged as UCSD went on to a 25-16 victory
>The Anteaters hit -.038 (8-9-26)

FOURTH SET
>Three straight UCSD attack errors, one a block by Doug Dahm and Sani, was followed by a Gillis ace, 10-6
>Following a UCSD timeout, Sani and Dahm roofed McCauley again then a Triton swing went long and Gillis had another ace extending the scoring streak to nine in a row, 14-6
>UCSD would hang around and close to 22-19 before a Tangutur kill stopped the momentum
>Sani had a kill to end the set, 25-20

FIFTH SET
>UCSD came out off the gate with the first four points
>A kill by Dahm got UCI on the board
>A kill by Gillis made it 7-10, before the Tritons responded with a kill and ace
>Following a UCSD service error, the Tritons had a pair of kills and a block to win the set 15-8 and the match 3-2

NOTES
>Sani has four matches with 20+ kills this season
>Wolf-Nielsen became the third Anteater this season to record eight or more blocks
>Alexandre Nsakanda came off the bench and fired an ace
>UCI is 2-5 in five set matches

UP NEXT
>UCI will host UC Santa Barbara in a mid-week match Wednesday (Mar. 30) at the Bren Events Center. First serve is 7:00 p.m.