SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – After dropping the first two sets, No. 6 UC Irvine rallied to beat UC Santa Barbara, 3-2 (23-25, 22-25, 25-15, 25-11, 15-11) at Rob Gym Thursday.

The Anteaters were led by junior Francesco Sani who put away 21 kills and fired a career-high six service aces. His six aces are tied for third most nationally in a five-set match and 11th overall. He hit .404 (21-2-47) and tied his career-best with 11 digs.

Sophomore Hilir Henno pounded 18 kills and had four aces.

UCI remains unbeaten in Big West action (3-0) and improves to 13-6 overall. UCSB falls to 5-12 and 1-3 in league play.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID
"Santa Barbara has established themselves as such a gritty team. From my perspective, we got distracted by some extraordinary defense. Then settled in and played some more mature ball than we might have in a month or two. It's good to see that growth."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>UCI had 12 aces, the third highest team total this season
>The Anteaters out-blocked the Gauchos, 7-3
>Cole Gillis, Connor Campbell and Maxim Grigoriev each had seven kills
>Campbell hit .545 (7-1-11) and had a match-high four total blocks plus an ace
>Setter Joe Karlous recorded his fifth double-double of the year with 53 assists and 10 digs
>Libero Cole Power totaled a team-high 12 digs
>UCSB was led by Nick Amoruso with 17 kills
>UCI out-hit UCSB .301 to .165  

FIRST SET
>A Hilir Henno off-speed shot got the match started, 1-0
>Kills by Francesco Sani and Cole Gillis made it 3-1
>A block, ace and kill by UCSB would give them the 8-7 lead
>A kill by Gillis was followed by one from Henno to knot the set at 12-12
>A Gaucho attack error and an ace by Henno moved UCI in front 17-16
>A 3-1 spurt by UCSB put the Gauchos back in front 19-18
>Two Gaucho miscues gave UCI the 21-20 advantage
>UCSB would out-score UCI 5-2 to win the set 25-23

SECOND SET
>A 5-1 run, which included four Gaucho errors and a kill by Gillis, gave UCI a 5-2 lead
>A kill by Maxim Grigoriev and an ace by Sani extended the lead to 7-3
>Trailing 4-7, UCSB would have seven straight to go ahead 10-7. The Anteaters had four attack errors, a receiving error and a service error to help UCSB
>UCI would rally with two blocks, one a solo by Gillis, a kill by Henno and an ace by Connor Campbell to tie it, 15-15
>Four consecutive kills by Ryan Wilcox gave UCSB a 22-18 cushion
>Henno would have a kill and then step back to the service line and get the Gauchos out-of-system to draw within 22-23
>A UCI service error was followed by a UCSB service ace to give UCSB a 25-22 win

THIRD SET
>UCI wuld take a 6-4 edge on kills by Gillis and Sani and a block by Joe Karlous and Grigoriev
>The lead was short lived as UCSB would score the next two, 6-6
>The Anteaters would break open the set on two kills by Henno and two kills and two aces by Sani, 19-12
>UCI would win 25-15

FOURTH SET
>UCI opened quickly with a 5-1 lead, helped by kills from Henno, Sani and Campbell
>It would expand to 8-2 lead on a Henno ace
>A Sani ace made it 12-4 and a Campbell solo block, 15-6
>UCI hit .650 (14-1-20) and cruised to a 25-11 victory

FIFTH SET
>Grigoriev started with a kill from the middle
>Three in a row including an ace by Henno made it 5-3
>Another 3-0 spurt capped by another Sani ace gave the Anteaters a 9-5 lead
>UCSB would hang around with two straight points narrowed UCI's lead to 11-9
>Back-to-back Sani kills stopped the momentum, 13-9
>Sani would end it with a kill, 15-11

NOTES
>UCI snapped a seven match losing streak against the Gauchos, winning for the first time since 2019
>Sani has an ace in 16 consecutive matches
>It is Sani's second double-double of the season

UP NEXT
The teams will play in Irvine tomorrow (Mar. 17). First serve from the Bren Events Center is 7:00 p.m. UCI will also have baseball and water polo contests beginning at 6:00 p.m. so please allow extra time for parking.