IRVINE, Calif. -- No. 5 UC Irvine battled but fell to No. 1 Long Beach State, 3-0 including a 29-27 third set in front of a sold-out crowd at the Bren Events Center.

UC Irvine goes to 15-5 on the year and 1-3 in league action, while The Beach, who took the first two sets, 25-23 and 25-19 and improve to 21-1 and 3-1 in the Big West.

The script was flipped from the night before with LBSU hitting .424 to UCI's .286 and The Beach holding an advantage in blocks (8.5-6.0) and aces (5-3).

Outside hitter Hilir Henno used his arsenal of shots and recorded a match-high 21 kills. He had an ace, a dig and two blocks.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Nolan Flexen put down eight kills, four digs and three block assists
>Opposite William D'Arcy recorded seven kills and three digs
>Middle blocker Micah Goss had a team-high four block assists
>Libero Shane Aitken collected eight digs
>Long Beach State's Alex Kandev hit .609 with a team-best 15 kills

FIRST SET
>LBSU started with the first four points on three UCI errors and a kill
>After the slow start, UCI tied it at 5-5 on a William D'Arcy kill, a Maxim Grigoriev ace and a Hilir Henno kill out of the back row
>Kills by D'Arcy and Nolan Flexen put UCI up 14-12
>LBSU went on a 3-0 run to move in front 17-16
>Teams would battle back and forth until The Beach gained the edge 21-19 on a block and kill
>LBSU would not relinquish the lead and win 25-23

SECOND SET
>A block by Henno and Micah Goss evened the score at 6-6
>The Beach would score the next three on a kill, ace and UCI attack error to take a 9-6 advantage
>A pair of kills and a block stretched LBSU's lead to 13-8
>Back-to-back kills put Long Beach up 18-11
>UCI would rally on a pair of Henno kills and a Beach attack error, 16-19
>A LBSU service error made it 19-22 but three Beach points followed, the last an ace, to end the set, 25-19

THIRD SET
>A kill by D'Arcy, block by Goss and Flexen and an ace by Grigoriev gave UCI a 7-4 lead
>Block came alive with another from Flexen and Goss, 9-6
>A kill by Henno extended the lead to 12-8 then a Henno ace sent the teams to the media timeout leading, 15-11
>A pair of kills by the Beach closed the gap to 17-18 before a kill by D'Arcy went off hands and Henno would do what only he can do setting the ball to an empty back corner for the kill 20-17
>Kniffin would challenge an import net call to keep UCI on top 21-18
>A 4-1 run by the Beach which included two blocks, tied the score at 23-23
>Teams would trade points landing LBSU on set point on a UCI service error and block, 26-25. A triple block by the Anteater kept the match going
>Another Anteater service error led to a Beach attack error, 27-27
>Long Beach State would win the match on a kill by Alex Kandev out of the back row and an ace by Moni Nikolov, 29-27

NOTES
>The crowd of 4,758 is the largest crowd from a school that isn't Hawaii or BYU
>This is the third time Henno has posted 20 or more kills this season

UP NEXT
UCI travels to UC San Diego Friday (Apr. 4) before returning to the Bren Center on Apr. 5 to   take on the Tritons