LONG BEACH, Calif. – No. 4 UC Irvine closed out the regular season with a 3-0 loss (25-27, 21-25, 17-25) to No. 1 Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid Saturday.

The Anteaters are 18-9 overall and finish in second place in the Big West standings with a 7-3 mark.

UCI receives a bye into the semifinals of The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship next Friday (Apr.  19) at 10:00 p.m. PT.

The Anteaters will meet the winner of No. 3 seed Hawai'i versus No. 6 seed UC Santa Barbara played on Thursday.

UCI had 18 service errors, the third most of the season and were out-aced 7-2.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Hilir Henno led UCI with 13 kills to go with four digs and a block assist
>Outside hitter Nolan Flexen had nine kills followed by William D'Arcy and Maxim Grigoriev with six kills. D'Arcy had a team-best five digs
>Middle blocker Connor Campbell hit .455 (5-0-11) with four total blocks (1 solo)
>Setter Brett Sheward led UCI to a .359 attack percentage with 37 set assists. He had four digs and two block assists
>Long Beach State hit .431 (40-9-72) and was led by Sotiris Siapanis' 13 kills
>The Beach out-blocked UCI 8.5-6.0

FIRST SET
>Two kills and an ace gave LBSU a 12-9 lead
>A kill by Hilir Henno and a Long Beach attack error closed the gap to 13-14, but The Beach answered with the next two
>A Beach service error was followed by an ace by Maxim Grigoriev to tie the set at 18-18
>A pair of kills and a block by LBSU put The Beach back in control 21-18
>LBSU held set point before UCI used a Beach service error and block by Grigoriev, Brett Sheward and Henno and a LB attack error tied it at 24 all
>The teams would trade points until a kill and ace handed Long Beach State the 27-25 victory
>Both teams were on fire offensively with UCI hitting .500 and LBSU .519

SECOND SET
>A kill by Grigoriev and a block by Connor Campbell and William D'Arcy put the Anteaters in front 3-1
>The teams would go point-for-point and with UCI leading 16-15, The Beach used a 5-1 run that saw a block, ace, kill and UCI attack error to move out to a 21-17 advantage
>Two kills by Henno kept the Anteaters in it, 21-24, but a LBSU kill ended the set 25-21

THIRD SET
>A 5-1 run put LBSU up 12-7
>UCI had a kill by Henno and a solo block by Campbell next, 9-12
>A kill and two blocks by LBSU forced a UCI timeout, 22-14
>Long Beach State ended the match with a kill, 25-17

NOTES
>UCI held a 20-18 advantage in digs
>UCI has hit over .350 12 times this season