IRVINE, Calif. – The No. 18 UC Santa Barbara Men's Volleyball team (11-14, 2-6 Big West) fell on Saturday evening at No. 5 UC Irvine (18-6, 4-4 Big West) in three sets—25-19, 25-17, 25-17. Geste Bianchi returned to the starting lineup, earning 11 kills, while George Bruening led the team with eight digs.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos were behind the eight ball early as a Hilir Henno serving run, concluded with his second ace, made it 7-0 Irvine to begin the match. Another Irvine ace gave them a nine-point lead—12-3. Despite the rough start, the Gauchos fought back valiantly, not ceding the set. Cole Schobel served an ace of his own to make the score 14-7. Soon after, libero Joe Wallace got two digs in one long rally that ended with a Gaucho point, and Geste Bianchi's kill on the next one made it 15-9. An Owen Birg-George Bruening double block, Bruening kill, and Bianchi kill on another tiring rally shrunk the deficit to 22-18. However, the chance at a massive comeback ended when the Anteaters served their fifth ace of the first set to clinch it, 25-19.
 
Early in the second, Santa Barbara used that momentum to get out to a 5-2 advantage. Up to that point, despite the serve receive woes, they held the reigning AVCA Player of the Year Henno to a .000 hitting percentage (3-3-16). Unfortunately, following that point, the hosts won six of seven points to force a Gauchos timeout, now down 8-6. Another Irvine ace increased their lead to 11-7 before another Birg-Bruening double block made it 12-10. The teams traded points to 14-12, but an 8-1 Anteater run followed, all but ending the set. The Gauchos won three Irvine set points before the 25-17 final score.
 
There was a lot of action to start the third set. The Gauchos were down 3-0 before the 6-foot-9 Josh Aruya and 6-foot-10 Bruening combined on a block for the team's first point. At 5-3 Irvine, substitute Sam Meister made an incredible one-handed solo block after a Gaucho overpass, which Bianchi followed up with an ace. A bit later, Ethan Saint's back row kill contributed to a 4-1 Gauchos run to re-tie it at 11-11. The tie would not last for long, though, as back-to-back Irvine blocks gave them a 16-13 lead. They would ice the match with a 6-0 run—17-15 to 23-15—and Henno ended it with a walk-off ace, taking the final set 25-17.  
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Playing for the first time since March 28 at CSUN, Geste Bianchi had 11 kills on 27 swings, both team highs.
• Freshman George Bruening tallied nine kills, one shy of adding to his previous five-match streak of double-digit kills. He was solid defensively, too, earning a team-high eight digs and three total blocks—tied with Josh Aruya.
• UC Irvine's 11 aces are their most this season since their first two matches, which came in Rob Gym at the ASICS Invitational. The Gauchos' 11 reception errors are their most in a match this season.

 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos have one final Big West matchup to round out the regular season—two matches hosting current-No. 4 Hawai'i next weekend. Both matches on Friday and Saturday in the Thunderdome are set for 7 p.m. As always, fans not attending can stream them on ESPN+ and follow along via live stats at ucsbgauchos.com/MVBLiveStats.