IRVINE, Calif. – No. 5 UC Irvine couldn't hold off No. 4 Long Beach State in a 3-2 loss (25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 20-25, 13-15) in the regular season finale at the Bren Events Center.

UCI is 16-10 on the year and finishes in third place with a 6-4 league record. The No. 3 seed Anteaters will face six-seed CSUN at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (Apr. 20) in the first round of Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship at the Bren Events Center.

Once again LBSU dominated the net 14.5 to 8.5, but UCI held a 7 to 2 ace advantage. The Beach hit .342 bettering UCI's .241 (61-26-145) mark.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Junior Francesco Sani had a match-best 20 kills, five aces, seven digs and five total blocks. It is his seventh 20-kill performance of the season
>Outside hitter Hilir Henno recorded 16 kills, an ace and nine digs
>Middle blocker Connor Campbell had a season-high 10 kills and four block assists
>Libero Cole Power had a team-high 10 digs
>The Beach had a trio of players with double-figure kills: Sotiris Siapanis (16), Clarke Godbold (15) and Spencer Olivier (12)

FIRST SET
>UCI got out to an early 3-1 lead on the strength of two Francesco Sani kills
>A kill by Hilir Henno and a triple block by Sani, Cole Gillis and Doug Dahm increased the advantage to 5-2
>A block by Campbell and Sani was followed by a kill by Sani, 12-9
>UCI led 14-11 only to watch the Beach score three in a row to tie the set at 14-14
>The Anteaters sailed two consecutive balls to give LBSU control 17-15
>A Beach service and attack error helped UCI to tie the set at 19 all
>Kills by Sani and Gillis plus an ace by Sani and another kill by Sani off hands gave UCI set point 24-21
>A kill by Henno finished off the set, 25-22

SECOND SET
>UCI broke open the set with a kill by Sani, an ace by Maxim Grigoriev and a block by Joe Karlous and Campbell, 11-5
>Kills by Gillis and Grigoriev extended the lead to 17-9
>The Beach would score three straight to force an Anteater timeout, 20-15
>Henno would once again close it out with a kill out of the back row, 25-18

THIRD SET
>Henno fired ace No. 80 on the season, 2-1
>UCI would lead 8-6 before LBSU rallied to move in front 9-8
>Behind a pair of kills and strong serving of Sani, UCI regained control, `13-11
>LBSU would quickly answer with a 6-1 spurt to create some separation, 17-14
>UCI would have a kill by Grigoriev and an ace by Sani (20-23), but LBSU would score the final two points, 25-20
>The Beach would hit .667 (15-1-21)

FOURTH SET
>A kill by Akhil Tangutur and a block by Sani and Grigoriev opened a 5-3 UCI advantage
>Two UCI errors and a Clark Godbold kill put the Beach in front, 6-5
>A couple of more UCI attack errors increased Long Beach's lead to 11-9
>UCI closed within 11-12 on a service error, but that was as close as the Anteaters would get as LBSU went on to a 25-20 victory

FIFTH SET
>UCI had three straight errors to start the set
>Another Anteater attack error gave LBSU a 6-2 lead
>An ace by Sani, a kill by Henno and a Long Beach attack error narrowed the deficit to 6-7
>LBSU would score the next three to push the margin back out to 10-6
>Down 12-9, UCI rallied again on a kill by Henno, a block by D. Dahm and Sani, 11-12
>A UCI error gave Long Beach State match point, 14-11, but the Anteaters weren't done using a kill by Tangutur, a solo block by Sani, 13-14
>Sotiris Siapanis ended the set and match with a kill, 15-13, completing the comeback

NOTES
>It is Powers eighth double-digit dig performance
>Sani upped his ace total to 41, good for 11^th in a season at UCI
>UCI celebrated graduating seniors Cole Gillis, Doug Dahm and Patrick Vorenkamp