Defending national champs drop third straight

IRVINE — The UC Irvine men’s volleyball team lost its third straight match, as UC San Diego pulled off a 30-25, 30-22, 31-33, 34-32 upset in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Saturday at Crawford Court.

The Tritons won for just the fifth time in 32 matches against UCI and snapped a six-match losing streak against the Anteaters, the defending national champions who are ranked No. 7 this season.

Russ Hardy led UC San Diego (2-3, 1-3 in conference) with a match-high 24 kills. Tritons freshman setter Phil Bannan, a Corona del Mar High product, produced 51 assists, four aces, seven digs and five blocks.

Junior opposite Jon Steller recorded a season-high 14 kills off the bench to lead UCI (3-5, 1-3).

Freshman outside hitter Kevin Carroll added 11 kills and freshman setter Anthony Spittle delivered 44 assists for the Anteaters.

“We are struggling early on in the season, but it is fundamental volleyball, passing and serving, that we can improve on,” UCI Coach John Speraw said. “I didn’t doubt there would be some struggles with a young team, but we just need to keep working hard and we’ll be a pretty good team at the end of the season.”

UCI trailed, 25-21, in the third game before going on a 7-2 run to take a 28-27 lead. The teams traded points until a UCSD service error at 32-31 was followed by a block by Cole Reinholm and Aaron Harrell to end the game, 33-31.

UCI led, 25-21, in the fourth game, before the Tritons rallied to tie the score on a Hardy kill.

Reinholm fired a service ace to put the Anteaters up, 28-26, but back-to-back kills by Tyler Kern and Frank Fritsch tied it at 28-28. The teams traded points until Gerald Houseman fired an ace and Hardy recorded another kill to end the game and the match, 34-32.

Anteaters libero Brent Asuka, a junior, had a team-high eight digs, while freshman outside hitter Cody Yoder chipped in eight kills.

The Tritons dominated the net, out-blocking UCI, 12-6.

— From staff reports