BOULDER, Colo. – UC Irvine, who was led by Emma Napoloen's career-high, needed five sets to beat Wyoming at the Buffs Invitational Saturday.

The Anteaters won the first two sets 25-22 and 25-21 at CU Events Center only to watch the Cowgirls win the next two 26-24 and 25-18. UCI, who took the final set 15-11, is now 2-3 in five set matches this season.

UCI improves to 5-3 overall, while Wyoming, who entered the tournament undefeated, loses its second consecutive match, 5-2.

Napoleon, a sophomore outside hitter, had a career-high 15 kills to lead UC Irvine, hitting .303 (15-5-33). She also added nine digs, two block assists and an ace.

Wyoming led UCI in every statistical category: hitting percentage (.228-.175), blocking (16-11), digs (68-63) and aces (8-2).

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Katie Smith was good on both sides of the ball recording 13 kills and 10 digs. She assisted on three block assists
>Opposite Hunter Riedl put down 12 kills and had three block assists
>Middle blocker Ella Gardiner tallied 10 kills and seven total blocks, which matches her career-best. The graduate student had five digs in the win
>Setter Nicole Feliciano totaled 37 set assists and 13 digs
>Libero Campbell Jensen had a match-high 16 digs
>Wyoming was led by Paige Lauterwasser's math-high 20 kills, while Kayla Mazzocca had 10 total blocks (3 solos)

FIRST SET
>A kill by Emma Napoleon was followed by two blocks from Katie Smith and Ella Gardiner to move out to an 8-5 lead
>Another 3-0 spurt which started with two Cowgirl errors then had a Hunter Riedl cross-court smash, 13-7
>Wyoming out-scored UCI 4-1 and got within 19-20
>The Answered with consecutive kills by Napoloen and Smith. 22-19
>The teams would sideout with Napoleon closing it out with a kill, 25-22

SECOND SET
>A kill, block and ace helped Wyoming to a 3-1 lead then two more kills and a UCI attack error stretched the advantage to 7-3
>UCI went to work scoring the next six on kills by Napoleon and Ella Gardiner and four Cowgirl attack errors, 9-7
>The Anteaters led 12-8 on kills by Napoleon and Gardiner and another WY attack error
>A pair of Riedl kills extended the margin to 18-14
>A perfect pass from Maia Niemen allowed Feliciano to dump the ball for a kill, 21-18  
>The Cowgirls kept it close and a block and kill forced a UCI timeout, 21-22
>A Wyoming service error out of the timeout was followed by a tough serve by Katie Smith that had the Cowgirls out of system and led to a Riedl kill, 24-21
>Following a Wyoming timeout, Riedl would swipe it off the block for the winner, 25-21

THIRD SET
>UCI scored six in a row, including a Soana Leaea kill, three Napoleon kills and two blocks to jump out to a 7-2 advantage
>Two blocks and an ace helped the Cowgirls (5-7) then consecutive errors hurt them, 9-5
>A kill by Katie Smith and a solo block by Leaea put UCI at 14-8
>Wyoming came alive with three straight (11-14) before the Anteaters answered with kills from Smith and Leaea, 16-11
>Wyoming would continue to make it interesting  closing within 20-21 on a 7-2 run that had five UCI errors
>The teams would trade service errors before Wyoming would catch UCI on a setter dump, 23-23
>A Napoleon kill gave UCI match-point only to watch Wyoming score the final three on back-to-back kills and a UCI attack error, handing the set to the Cowgirls, 26-24

FOURTH SET
>It was all Wyoming to start the set, 6-2
>A Cowgirl service error and a solo block by Ella Gardiner pulled UCI within 6-4
>Indy De Smet entered the match and set a kill by Gardiner then fired a serve that was sent back over and killed by Kendra Duffey to knot the score at 13-13
>Wyoming took control again with four unanswered points, 18-14
>After a pair of UCI kills, Wyoming peeled off four more, including two aces to take control 22-16
>Wyoming forced a fifth set with a 25-20 win

FIFTH SET
>UCI used kills by Riedl, Feliciano and Leaea and a block by Leaea and Riedl to get out to a 6-2 advantage
>Kills by Gardiner and Smith gave UCI an 11-8 advantage
>Teams would trade points until a Cowgirl hitting error ended the set 15-11 and the match for the Anteaters

NOTES
>This is the first match that four Anteater players had double-figure kills
>Feliciano and Smith have back-to-back double-doubles

UP NEXT
UCI closes out the Buff Invitational against Cal tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m.