Irvine Regulates the Net at "The Beach"

March 3, 2007

NO. 2 UC IRVINE TAKES DOWN NO. 14 LONG BEACH STATE, 3-2 (Boxscore)

Long Beach, Calif. -- Second-ranked UC Irvine recorded 5.5 blocks in game five to take down No.14 Long Beach State, 3-2 (23-30, 30-19, 30-25, 28-30, 15-12) in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Saturday at The Gold Mine.

Long Beach State (7-9, 4-8) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the fifth game on back-to-back service aces, but UC Irvine (19-3, 13-3) took a 4-2 advantage after a Forty-Niner attempt went long and the Anteaters recorded three consecutive blocks in which Aaron Harrell had a hand in each of them. The score was tied 8-8 when David Smith recorded a kill, a block with Brian Thornton and then another kill to put UCI up 11-8. Long Beach State would close to 12-11 before a LBSU attack error was followed by a Harrell kill to give the Anteaters match point, 14-11. A Long Beach kill was followed by another Harrell kill for the game 15-12 and the match 3-2. LBSU hit .069 in the final set.

Matt Webber led all players with 20 kills and nine digs. He also added six total blocks and three service aces. Middle blocker David Smith recorded 11 kills and a match-high 13 total blocks, which included a season-high 11 block assists. Setter Brian Thornton had 53 assists, seven digs and a career-best eight block assists. Junior middle blocker Aaron Harrell added eight kills, two aces and six blocks. Libero Nick Spittle had nine digs in the victory. Jayson Jablonsky recorded 10 kills, Cole Reinholm nine and Taylor Wilson four for UCI.

Long Beach State was paced by Paul Lotman with 16 kills, four aces, six digs and five blocks. Dean Bittner added 11 kills, while Dan Alexander had a team-high seven total blocks.

UCI out-blocked Long Beach State with a season-high 21.5 to 14.5, but the Forty-Niners out-served the Anteaters 17-8.

UC Irvine will host No. 5 UCLA Friday (Mar. 9) at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center.