LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 14th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team could not overcome a slow start and lost to No. 11 UC Irvine 30-15, 30-25, 29-31, 30-23 on Friday night in Irvine. UCSD was held under a .100 attack percentage in the first two sets as UCI controlled both sets. Joel Davidson had a team-high 19 kills while Jason Spangler added 14 kills. With the loss, the Tritons drop to 5-12, 2-10 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, while the Anteaters improve to 9-9, 5-8 MPSF.

Also for the Tritons, Adrian Guthals added seven kills while Frank Fritsch had six kills. Phil Bannan had 47 assists and 15 digs.

UC Irvine was led by Carson Clark with a match-high 27 kills while Jordan DuFault added 16 kills.

In the first set, the Tritons only managed nine kills against 11 attack errors. The second set was not much better for UCSD as the Tritons hit .077.

In the third set, the Tritons sent down 24 kills and hit at a .417 clip. UCSD had only 20 combined kills in the first two sets. It did not look like a fourth set would happen as the Anteaters took a 15-9 lead. UCSD chipped away and trailed 26-23 before a Guthals kill and block by Guthals and Bannan tied the set at 26-26. With the scored tied at 29-29, Davidson sent down back-to-back kills to give UCSD the set four win at 31-29.

UC Irvine scored four of the first five points of the fourth set. The Tritons came back to within 13-12 before the Anteaters went on a run. UCI scored seven of the next nine points to lead 20-14 and this time, the lead was too much for the Tritons to overcome. UCSD was only able to come within 24-21 before the Anteaters would put the set and match away at 30-23.

UCSD is back in action on Friday, March 5 when it travels to take on Stanford at 7:00 p.m. on the Cardinal campus.