IRVINE, Calif. – UC Irvine dropped a 3-1 (25-22, 27-29, 12-25, 15-25) loss to Boston College at the Bren Events Center Sunday afternoon.

The middle attack led the Anteaters, hitting .381 (22-6-42). Ella Gardiner was once again stellar with a team-high 12 kills, hitting .500 (12-2-20) and a career-best four block assists. Isabella Scarlett had a career-high 10 kills  and a block assist.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>In another balanced offensive attack, Marianna Bertolone added nine kills, Hunter Riedl eight and Ellen Veargason. Riedl posted a career-high four block assists to match Gardiner for the team high
>Kendra MacDonald made her season debut with five kills and three digs, while Emma Spindt had five kills in two sets
>Setter Nicole Feliciano totaled 34 set assists and nine digs
>Libero Campbell Jensen had a team-high 21 digs
>BC hit .354 (62-10-147) and was led by Alayna Crabtree with 21 kills

FIRST SET
>A UCI service error and two kills gave BC a 5-3 lead, but the Anteaters came back quickly with kills by Ofure Iselen and Ella Gardiner
>Teams would stay within two until 13-13 when UCI had four straight kills, one from Kendra MacDonald, and Hunter Riedl and two by Gardiner, 17-13
>Boston College closed within 18-17, but a MacDonald kill, a Becca Sakoda ace and a block by Gardiner and Ellen Veargason followed to re-gain control, 21-17
>A kill by Isabella Scarlett put UCI at set point, but another Scarlett kill for the winner was delayed by a BC kill,  25-22

SECOND SET
>An Eagle ball handling error and two Riedl kills helped the Anteaters to a 5-2 lead
>BC responded with a pair of kills and an ace to knot the set at 5-5
>An ace by Bertolone and a kill by Riedl gave UCI the 14-10 advantage before BC peeled off five straight on three kills, an ace and a block to move in front 15-14
>A kill by Reidl and a dig error on the Boston College side gave UCI the 18-16 lead
>The Eagles would score six of the next seven, including two aces, to take a 23-19 lead
>UCI came alive with the next four behind the serving of Lexi Gruszczynski and kills by Gardiner, Scarlett, Veargason and Bertolone, 23-23
>The teams would trade points until BC used a UCI attack in the net and kill to win the set, 29-27
>The set was tied 11 times with five lead changes

THIRD SET
>Following an ace by Bertolone, the Eagles had six in a row to break open an 8-2 lead
>A 4-0 spurt by BC opened up a 21-9 lead
>Boston College would not commit an attack error, hitting .567 (17-0-30) and win the set, 25-12

FOURTH SET
>UCI led 5-4 then BC had four unanswered to create some separation, 7-4 and force a UCI timeout
>A kill by Veargason and two by Bertolone pulled UCI within 9-10, but the Eagles answered with the next four, 14-9
>Three consecutive kills moved the BC lead to 17-10
>The Eagles never looked back winning the set 25-15 and the match 3-1

NOTES
>Bertolone and Sakoda each had two aces for the Anteaters
>Jensen has recorded 20 or more digs three times this season
>The Anteaters have not out-blocked an opponent this season with BC holding the 9-6 advantage

UP NEXT
UCI heads to the Cougar Challenge at Washington State, facing the host Cougars on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.