IRVINE, Calif. – No. 14 UC Irvine dropped a 3-1 decision to No. 6 UC Santa Barbara (19-25, 18-25, 28-26, 22-25) at the Bren Events Center in a rare Wednesday match.

UCI sophomore Francesco Sani had another stellar night leading all players with 26 kills. He now not only owns the top spot in the Big West for kills in a match (28) but is tied for third with his 26 tonight.

UCSB (15-6, 4-2) led in every statistical category, topping the Anteaters in hitting percentage (.409-.246), blocks (11-6), aces (5-3) and digs (32-31).

INISDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Cole Gillis totaled 10 kills, five digs and four total blocks
>Middle blocker Aiden Wolf-Nielsen tied his career-high with nine kills, while adding an ace and three block assists
>Middle blocker Doug Dahm hit .571 (8-0-14) and had two block assists
>Setter Brian Garcia came off the bench and recorded a season-high 43 set assists , four digs and two block assists
>Libero Cole Power had a match-high 10 digs
>The Gauchos had a trio of players with double-figure kills led by Haotian Xia with 16. Ryan Wilcox tallied 14 kills, six digs and five total blocks, while Donovan Todorov add 10 kills and a match-high six block assists
>The Anteaters (8-12, 1-4) were once again without the services of Hilir Henno, Patrick Vorenkamp and Connor Campbell.

FIRST SET
>UCSB went on a 4-0 run to open a 10-5 lead
>UCI got right back into it with three of their own, two on blocks including a triple block by Cole Gillis, Doug Dahm and Francesco Sani
>The Gauchos held set point, 24-16, but UCI wouldn't go quietly scoring three in a row (kills by Akhil Tangutur and Sani and an ace by Sani) before a service error ended the game 25-19

SECOND SET
>UCI led 7-6 before the Gauchos out-scored the Anteaters 4-1 to take a 10-8 lead
>An ace by Aiden Wolf-Nielsen helped close the gap 11-13, but UCSB would never relinquish the lead and go on to win 25-18
>UCSB hit .522 (12-0-23)

THIRD SET
>Blasts from and Wolf-Nielsen and Tangutur started the Anteaters out quickly, 2-0
>With the teams tied 12-12, UCSB went in front with a kill and a UCI error
>Kills by Wolf-Nielsen, Gillis and Sani inched UCI to 20-21
>UCSB would hold a 24-22 advantage before the Anteaters rallied on a pair of kills by Sani, 24-24
>UCI had the final three points, a kill and ace by Sani plus a block by Wolf-Nielsen and Brian Garcia to win the set 28-26

FOURTH SET
>UCSB would start with a 6-2 advantage
>The Anteaters chipped away and came within 11-12 on a Sani kill
>UCI couldn't break through UCSB's two-point cushion after that and the Gauchos used a triple block to end the night 25-22

NOTES
>Sani has five 20+ kill matches this season
>Akhil Tangutur totaled a season-high six digs to go with four kills

UP NEXT
The teams will meet again in Santa Barbara Friday (Apr. 2) at 7:00 p.m. in Rob Gym