LA JOLLA, Calif. – No. 5 UC Irvine had to battle back to beat No. 13 UC San Diego, 3-2 (25-23, 19-25, 23-25, 25-15, 15-13) at Lion Tree Arena Saturday night.

After hitting .042 (17-15-47) over sets two and three, UCI rallied to hit .533 in the fourth and .412 in the fifth, not committing an error in the final game.

Senior William D'Arcy and freshman Andrej Jokanovic led the Anteaters with 14 kills each. D'Arcy added three digs and two block assists, while Jokanovic hit .414 (14-2-29) with a match-high eight digs, an ace and block assist.

The Anteaters hit a season-low .196 (46-24-112) and had a season-low two aces.

UCI improves to 15-3 overall and 3-1 in the Big West, while UC San Diego falls to  2-3 in the Big West and 11-9 overall.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Middle blocker Micah Goss recorded six kills, an ace and a solo block, while middle blocker Trevor Clark totaled a team-best five total blocks (1 solo) with six kills
>Setter Cameron Kosty had 36 set assists, three block assists and two digs
>Outside hitter Andon Kiriakou recorded six digs and four kills
>Micah Tumas added a kill as did Nicolas Restrepo in his debut
>Libero Shane Aitken had six digs
>In a reversal of the previous night, UC San Diego out-blocked UCI, 12 to 8
>UCSD's Sebastiano Sani led all players with a career-tying 19 kills
>Serving was a struggle for both teams with UCI tallying 20 errors from the service line, and UCSD having 29

FIRST SET
>A pair of kills by William D'Arcy and two Triton attack errors helped UCI out to a 6-2 lead
>Back-to-back UCSD attack errors increased UCI's lead to 11-7
>Three consecutive Triton errors gave UCI a 19-13 advantage
>UCI looked to have a comfortable lead until Sebastiano Sani stepped to the service line and led UCSD to a 7-0 run, that included three blocks to tie the set at 23-23
>Trevor Clark would terminate the next two balls to give UCI the 25-23 victory
>Teams had 13 service errors between them

SECOND SET
>UCSD led 9-7 with six of UCI's points coming on Triton service errors
>After UCSD led 15-10 at the media timeout, UCI scored on a kill by Clark and a Triton attack error
>UC San Diego responded with the next  four
>UCI tried to rally inserting Nicolas Restrepo, Micah Tumas and Aidan Schulten scoring three in a row to close within 16-20
>UCSD would go on to win 25-19
>The Tritons would hit .500 to UCI's .048

THIRD SET
>A 7-1 run by UCSD which included five UCI errors put the Tritons up 11-5
>UCI out-scored UCSD 7-1, scoring four in a row on a Triton service error, kills by D'Arcy and Andrej Jokanovic and a block by Cameron Kosty and Clark to inch to 12-13
>Two Triton errors tied the set at 14 all, but UCSD would score six of the next seven, all on UCI errors, the last a receiving error to go back up 20-15
>UCI would fight off three set points on a kill by D'Arcy and two blocks by Beck Weber, one with Jokanovic and one with D'Arcy, 22-24
>A UCI service error handed UCSD the 25-23 win

FOURTH SET
>A pair of kills by D'Arcy, three Triton attack errors, a Micah Goss kill on an overpass and another kill by Jokanovic gave the Anteaters the quick 7-0 lead
>UCI would lead 22-11 after scoring four unanswered on a D'Arcy kill on an overpass and four UCSD attack errors, the last a block by Clark
>UC San Diego had three in a row before a service error ended the set 25-15 forcing a fifth set

FIFTH SET
>Consecutive kills gave UCSD the 4-2 edge
>A Triton service error and a block by Kosty and Clark knotted the score at 6-6
>With the score tied at 12-12, UCI used a UCSD service error and a kill by Jokanovic to sit at match point 14-12
>Following a Triton kill, Jokanovic pounded the winner, 15-13

NOTES
>UC Irvine improves to 7-1 on the road
>Jokanovic led UCI in kills and digs in both matches against UCSD

UP NEXT
UCI will host No. 2 Hawaii Friday and Saturday (Apr. 4-5) at the Bren Events Center. Both matches start at 6:00 p.m. Buy Tickets