The UCI Men’s Volleyball team (16-10, 6-4) were defeated by Long Beach State University (20-3, 9-1) in a stunning 3-2 reverse sweep upset at the Bren Events Center on Saturday, April 15. This game marked the final match of the regular conference season.
Among some of the standout players of the night for the Anteaters was junior outside hitter Francesco Sani, with his seventh 20-kill performance to end the season on a high. Other notable players included a trio from the Beach with kills in the double figures — sophomore outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis with 16, junior outside hitter Clarke Godbold with 15 and redshirt senior outside hitter Spencer Olivier with 12 to round out the night.
The Anteaters drew first blood in the first set with a few kills off the bat to gain a quick 3-1 lead. An impressive triple block play by Sani, redshirt junior outside hitter Cole Gillis and redshirt junior outside hitter Doug Dahm extended the UCI lead to 5-2. A large majority of the first set was a back-and-forth between both volleyball squads, with UCI and the Beach tying the set twice at 14-14 and 19-19.
UCI ultimately clutched upin the latter half of the first set with a flurry of kills from Sani and Gillis, putting them on set point territory at 24-21. One more kill by sophomore outside hitter Hilir Henno granted UCI their first set win of the night.
The Beach began the second set of the game securing the first kill in Anteater territory. The two teams then exchanged kills coming in from both sides — that is, until UCI edged out an early lead with a few errors by the Beach and kills from the squad to make it 11-5.
The Anteaters continued to widen the gap with more kills by Gillis, Sani and defensive plays by freshman middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev to extend the lead to 17-9. While the Beach were able to make something of a comeback with kills from the main trio, UCI outscored Long Beach State, ultimately winning the second set in a quiet 25-18 set.
The Beach started the third set by once again drawing first blood with a kill, 1-0. Both volleyball squads fought tooth and nail against each other, scoring back-to-back kills, until the Beach finally got their first lead of the night off an ace by Siapanis to make it 9-8.
The Beach and the Anteaters kept trading leads with one another, when in the latter half of the set, the Beach scored three kills to make it 18-15. Long Beach kept the momentum up all the way until the end of the third set, assisted with kills as well as three crucial service errors to grant the Beach their first set win 25-20, 2-1. This also marked the Beach’s pivot towards a reverse sweep upset.
UCI began the fourth set of the game with a kill by redshirt junior setter Joe Karlous. Both squads went back and forth in kills yet again, until Long Beach finally made five kills in succession. Two additional service errors made by Henno and Karlous helped give the Beach a 20-15 lead.
Towards the end of the fourth set, UCI began to close the gap with five more kills — an ace from Sani, two kills from senior outside hitter Akhil Tangutur and a service error by the Beach — but ultimately was gatekept by the Beach by their potent offensive prowess. Long Beach State won the fourth set 25-20, 2-2, sending both teams into a fifth and final set.
In the last set of the game, the Beach began with an advantageous 3-0 lead as a result of three consecutive errors made by UCI. The Beach ultimately maintained their lead for the remainder of the set to win the game, though UCI didn’t go down without a fight as they nearly edged it out in a close, but no less heartbreaking 15-13 set loss.
On April 20, the UCI Men’s Volleyball squad battled other universities in the Big West Men’s Volleyball tournament hosted at the University of California, Irvine. Their first opponent in the bracket was be the CSUN Matadors.
Philip Lemus is a Sports Apprentice for the spring 2023 quarter. They can be reached at plemus1@uci.edu.