DAVIS, Calif. – UC Irvine fell to UC Davis 3-2 at The Pavilion Thursday night.

UCI won the first set 25-23 then had to battle back after losing the next two, 25-23 and 25-16 to win the the fourth, 25-14 only to watch the Aggies cruise to a 15-3 win in the final set.

UCI suffers its second consecutive five-set loss to go to 8-5 overall and 1-2 in the Big West. UC Davis is 7-6 overall and 2-1 in the Big West.

The Anteaters, the nation's No. 3 team in kills, hit a season-low .144 (54-30-162). UCD was slightly better with a .162 mark (54-27-167) and out-blocked UCI 14-8.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Marianna Bertolone led UCI for the second consecutive match with 11 kills. She recorded her second double-double of the season with a team-high 13 digs
>Juniors Joy Umeh and Onye Ofoegbu each had 10 kills
>Middle blocker Kiani Stanton recorded six kills, hitting .455 (6-1-11)
>Freshman Kendra MacDonald had a career-high six kills and a team-best four total blocks (three solo, one block assists)
>Libero Carly Richter matched Bertolone with 13 digs in three sets
>Setter Kelly Negron totaled 24 set assists and 10 digs, while Audrey Tucker came in a racked up 16 set assists and six digs
>UC Davis was led by Olivia Utterback's season-high 16 kills

FIRST SET
>UC Davis made the first move, going on a 7-2 run to take a 12-7 lead
>A 5-1 spurt by UCI, which included two kills by Joy Umeh got the Anteaters back in the set, 12-13
>The Aggies would score two in a row to stretch their lead to 17-14 before Onye Ofoegbu had a kill and a monster block that was followed by a kill by Ellen Veargason and an Aggie attack intp the net to move UCI in front 18-17
>Veargason would put away two consecutive kills to force a UCD timeout, 20-18
>Out of the break, Ofoegbu had an ace followed by a UCD had an attack error, 22-18  
>UCI would hold set point before two Aggie points delayed a set-winner from Emma Spindt, 25-22

SECOND SET
>UC Davis had four straight, two on kills and two UCI attack errors, 8-4
>The Aggies led 18-13 before UCI rallied on a pair of kills by Kiani Stanton to close to 16-19
>Back-to-back UCD errors nudged UCI closer, 21-22
>The teams would end the set, trading points, giving UCD the set 25-23

THIRD SET
>A solo block by Kendra MacDonald was followed by two Aggie attack errors giving UCI a 6-3 lead
>Another solo block by MacDonald made it 8-6
>The Aggies would score four unanswered, three on UCI errors, to take a 10-8 lead
>An 8-1 run by UC Davis gave the Aggies control of the set, 18-10
>UCI tried to rally on a kill and solo block by MacDonald and a kill by Ofoegbu, 15-21
>UCD would score four of the next five to win 25-16
>UCI hit a dismal -.222

FOURTH SET
>The Anteaters strung five in a row on two kills by MacDonald, a block by MacDonald and Ofoegbu, a Audrey Tucker ace and an Aggie error for a 15-10 UCI lead
>Kills by Keelan Williams and Ofoegbu extended the lead to 17-11
>A 5-0 run by UCI made it 22-13 and the Anteaters would take the set 25-14

FIFTH SET
>UC Davis got out to a quick 5-1 lead on the help of three UCI errors
>Three UCD kills, a block and an ace put the set out of reach, 10-2
>The Aggies would roll, scoring the final five points to win 15-3 win
>The Anteaters didn't have a kill in the set (0-5-14)

NOTES
>The Anteaters are 0-3 in five set matches
>14 UCI players saw action

UP NEXT
UCI stays on the road, heading to UC Riverside Saturday (Oct. 1) for a 4:00 p.m. match.