SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – No. 4 UC Irvine dropped a five-set loss (25-16, 23-25, 25-18, 17-25, 15-17) at No. 11 UC Santa Barbara Saturday at the Thunderdome.

UCI was led by opposite William D'Arcy and freshman Andrej Jokanovic with 17 kills each. D'Arcy added two aces and four blocks for a team-best 21 points, while Jokanovoc posted two aces and two block assists.

The Anteaters go to 13-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big West, while UCSB is 10-7 overall and 2-1 in league play.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Middle blocker Trevor Clark led the team with six total blocks to go with nine kills
>Middle blocker Micah Goss tied his season-high with five block assists to go with seven kills
>Setter Cameron Kosty totaled 48 set assists and had a career-high nine digs. He also added two aces and two block assists
>Shane Aitken was the team's digs leader with 13
>UC Irvine held the advantage on the stat sheet in hitting percentage, .277-.272, along with aces, 7-5, and blocks, 11-8
>UCSB was led by George Bruening's match-high 20 kills

FIRST SET
>UCI went on a 4-0 run that included kills by Micah Goss and Andrej Jokanovic and two Gaucho errors, the last courtesy of a block by Goss and William D'Arcy, to put the Anteaters up 7-4
>Back-to-back aces by D'Arcy extended the lead to 15-7
>Another ace, this one by Jokanovic increased the lead to 22-12
>A kill by Trevor Clark in the middle ended the set, 25-16

SECOND SET
>The tightly contested set saw 10 ties, the last a kill by D'Arcy made it 23-23
>UC Santa Barbara would put away the final two kills to clinch the set 25-23
>UCI out-hit the Gauchos .235-.135 and held a 4-1 block advantage in the set

THIRD SET
>A pair of Cameron Kosty aces put the Anteaters on top 5-3
>UCI trailed 10-11 before going on a 6-1 run that saw two kills and an ace by Jokanovic tp give the Anteaters a 16-12 advantage
>Another run, this one 5-1, with the help of three Gaucho attack errors, gave the Anteaters a 23-15 lead
>D'Arcy had the set-winning kill, 25-18

FOURTH SET
>Three consecutive Riggs Guy kills helped UCSB to an early 4-1 lead
>Three straight UCI errors gave UCSB a 17-11 lead
>A pair of Gaucho kills gave UCSB the 25-17 victory

FIFTH SET
>UCI went up 5-3 on kills by Andon Kiriakou and D'Arcy
>Down 12-13, UCI responded with kills by Clark and Kiriakou to give UCI set point, 14-13
>UCSB had a kill to knot the set and continue play
>A kill by Goss put UCI at set point once against 15-14 only to watch UC Santa Barbara score the last three on two kills and a UCI attack error, 17-15

NOTES
>UCI is 6-6 in five-set matches this season, dropping the last three after leading 2-1
>The Anteaters lost their first match on the road this season (6-1)

UP NEXT
UCI will take the week off for final examinations and return to action Mar. 27 at the Bren Events Center. First serve is 6:00 p.m.