Box Score PRESS CONFERENCE

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Fifth-seeded UC Irvine had another fearless effort, but fell 3-1 to top-seeded Long Beach State in a semifinal of the OUTRIGGER Big West Men's Volleyball Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands at SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UCI won the first set 25-22 then dropped the next two 25-23 and 25-19 before a hard fought 29-27 final set.

The Anteaters end the season 11-16 overall, while LBSU goes to 20-4 and advance to the title match tomorrow against either Hawaii or UC Santa Barbara.

UCI continued its hot-hitting, posting a .367 (58-14-120) mark, the fourth highest percentage of the season. The Beach bettered the Anteaters, hitting .412 (63-14-119). The Anteaters out-blocked LBSU 8.5-4.5.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Opposite Francesco Sani led UCI with 21 kills, hitting .304
>Freshman Hilir Henno added 14 kills and had four aces
>Middle blocker Doug Dahm had a season-high nine kills, hitting .500 (9-1-16) with four blocks
>Setter Brian Garcia closed out his career with 42 set assists, a match-high five total blocks, seven digs and three kills
>Middle blocker Aiden Wolf-Nielsen had seven kills and two blocks
>Libero Cole Power had a team-high 12 digs
>Outside hitter Cole Gillis added eight digs, two aces and three kills
>LBSU's Alex Nikolov had a match-best 28 kills, joining Sani for the second most kills in the Big West this season. He hit .558, recording 11 kills in the fourth set
 
FIRST SET
>Four straight UCI points, kills by Doug Dahm, Francesco Sani and Aiden Wolf-Nielsen plus a LBSU attack error  helped the Anteaters out to a 6-2 lead
>UCI would remain in command until LBSU would go on a 6-2 run to close within 16-13
>A service ace that was originally called out was reversed on the challenge and tied the set 18-18
>After a Beach foot fault, Cole Gillis fired an ace, 20-18
>At 21-20, Sani unloaded a kill down the line followed by a block by Wolf-Nielsen and Henno forcing a LBSU timeout, 23-20
>A kill by Wolf-Nielsen in the middle gave UCI set point, 24-21
>The teams would trade service errors to end the set, 25-22
>UCI hit .500 (15-1-28)

SECOND SET
>Three straight by LBSU, two UCI errors, helped the Beach to a 5-3 lead
>A solo block by Brian Garcia and a kill by Henno drew UCI within 9-10
>Another kill by Henno brushed off the block and a LBSU attack error tied the set at 11-11
>A blocking and attack error followed to move the Beach back up by two, 13-11
>Three in a row by the 'Eaters, a kill by Sani and two aces by Henno gave UCI the lead at the media timeout, 15-14
>A 4-1 spurt by Long Beach gave the Beach a 19-17 lead
>A LBSU service error was followed by another Henno ace, 22-23
>A service error by each team led to a Alex Nikolov kill to end it, 25-23
>Both offenses were clicking. LBSU hit .545 (14-2-22) and UCI .462 (15-3-26)

THIRD SET
>A Beach attack error and a kill by Sani, 2-0
>A 4-1 run by the Anteaters included a kill and block by Dahm and two Sani kills made it 6-3
>Back-to-back kills by Sani and D. Dahm was followed by a Gillis ace, 13-10
>Out of a LBSU timeout, Dahm cleaned up a ball on the net, 14-10
>Long Beach State, behind the tough serving of Nathan Harlan, would break open the set scoring eight unanswered to move in front 21-16
>The Beach would go on to win, 25-19

FOURTH SET
>Three kills by Long Beach State, 5-2
>An ace extended the Beach lead to 8-3
>UCI came alive on a 5-1 run which included a kill by Wolf-Nielsen, a block by Sani and Wolf-Nielsen, an ace by Henno, a LBSU service error and a kill by Sani, 9-10
>Nikolov regained control with three kills, 14-10
>A kill by Sani, a Long Beach error and a kill by Garcia followed, 13-14
>UCI wouldn't go away, out-scoring LBSU 4-1 to move ahead 18-16. Power had a ball pop off his should and land in the back of the court for a kill during the run
>A block and kill from the Long Beach side would tie the score at 20-20
>The teams would trade points with each squad having a chance to put it away, but it would be Long Beach scoring the final two points on UCI errors, 29-27

NOTES
>With four aces, Henno jumps Zack La Cavera to sit in 10^th in the UCI single season record book with 45
>Sani has eight matches with 20 or more kills this season
>It is the second consecutive year UCI has lost to Long Beach State to end the season
>UCI out-blocked its opponent in six of the last seven matches