Women’s Volleyball: UCI stumbles in Big West opener

It has been nearly a month since the UC Irvine women’s volleyball team turned heads by sweeping then-No. 7-ranked USC on the Women of Troy’s home floor.

Any mileage gained from the watershed win, however, appears to be water under the bridge, as the Anteaters have gone 4-8 since.

Included in the less-than-encouraging results was a 20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 15-13 home loss to Cal State Northridge in the Big West Conference opener for both teams on Thursday at the Bren Events Center.

UCI (5-10) was picked to finish fourth in the conference in the preseason coaches’ poll, three spots ahead of the Matadors (5-9).

“We can live on [the upset of USC] or we can move on with our life,” UCI Coach Ashlie Hain said after her team bested CSUN in several key statistical categories. “We never made too big a deal about [beating USC]. I don’t think they played that well and we caught them on a bad night. And I think we were executing a little better then.”

Hain said injuries prevented utilizing a consistent lineup and Thursday marked the first time since the USC match that that specific lineup was back in place.

“Our defense is poor right now and I think everybody is on a different page,” Hain said. “We’ve had some people out who are coming back and it just hasn’t been a consistent lineup. We are hoping people can learn to work together in the new 6-2 system we are running.”

UCI put together effective stretches, particularly in winning the second and third sets to assume control of the match.

Victoria Dennis, a 6-foot-3 senior outside hitter, led the way for UCI with 19 kills. Freshman outside hitter Loryn Carter (12 kills), as well as sophomores Harlee Kekauoha (11), Idara Akpakpa (10) and Haley DeSales (10) also added punch to help UCI hit .230 as a team, seven points better than the Matadors.

Junior libero Luna Tsujimoto, a transfer from Ohio State, matched DeSales with a team-best 19 digs and Tsujimoto had a match-best three aces.

But Tsujimoto boomed a jump-float serve long after her ace and a rotation violation helped UCI erase a 13-10 deficit in the fifth set.

The Matadors closed out the match on an overpass kill to improve to 4-1 in five-set matches this season.

UCI, meanwhile, is 1-3 in five-set contests, and is now 2-6 in its last eight matches.

UCI had more kills, 69-63, more digs, 82-76, more aces, 6-5, and a better service-receiver percentage, .949 to .943.

CSUN posted a 13-7 edge in team blocks and had two fewer service errors.

“It’s really disappointing,” Hain said of the loss. “I think the girls are disappointed by their performance. I just think there’s a lack of understanding about how to execute. I think our team can beat anyone and we can lose to anyone.”