No. 1 UCLA men's volleyball walked into Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night expecting to punch its ticket to another national semifinal. Instead, No. 6 UC Irvine crashed the party, storming back for a 3-2 stunner that ended the Bruins' season on their home floor.
The Anteaters took the regional final 25-23, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25, 16-14, sending UCLA home before the national semifinals and cutting short a run that had Westwood talking about another deep postseason.
Anteaters Rip Away Fifth-Set Leads
UCLA looked like it had survived the scare when it reached match point at 14-12 in the fifth. Pauley was ready to explode. Then the script flipped.
UC Irvine fought back from the 12-12 deadlock, and a successful Anteaters challenge wiped out what had appeared to be the Bruins’ match-winning point. From there, Irvine rattled off four straight points on two late kills from Andreas Brinck and two UCLA attack errors, closing out the tiebreaker 16-14 to seal the upset, according to UCI Athletics. In a five-set match, momentum can flip in a rally, and the Bruins saw it happen in real time.
Numbers Tell The Story
Stat sheets rarely scream “upset,” but this one tried. Brinck led UC Irvine with 17 kills, while UCLA’s Sean Kelly unloaded for a match-high 26 and senior outside hitter Zach Rama added 20, per UCLA Athletics. The Bruins actually outkilled the Anteaters 69-58, yet Irvine’s late serving pressure and timely blocks carried the final frame.
Attendance at Pauley Pavilion was listed at 1,673 for the regional final, a crowd that got its money’s worth and then some, even if the locals walked out stunned.
Bruins React To Sudden Exit
Afterward, UCLA coach John Hawks was still processing how quickly the night turned.
He told the Daily Bruin he was "incredibly sad" for his seniors following what he called an "incredible run." Rama echoed the heartbreak, saying the team had shown "a lot of heart" all season and lamenting that the Bruins’ final swing sailed just out of bounds.
Players filed out of Pauley to a mix of applause and disbelief, while UCI huddled and celebrated on the same floor UCLA had expected to defend all the way through championship weekend. Volleyball, it turns out, has no respect for storylines.
Bracket And What's Next
UC Irvine improved to 20-8 with the win and advanced to the NCAA semifinals at Pauley Pavilion on May 9, where the Anteaters will face No. 4 Ball State, according to UCI Athletics.
On the other side of the bracket, Long Beach State will meet Hawaii in a Big West rematch, per Hawaii Athletics. The semifinals and national championship are scheduled at Pauley Pavilion the weekend of May 9–11, meaning UCLA’s home gym will host the final rounds without the Bruins in the field.
Why It Matters
For UCLA, the loss caps a 29-2 season, per UCLA Athletics, and abruptly ends a campaign built around expectations of another long NCAA run. It is a harsh reminder that a handful of plays can flip an entire year from “title favorite” to “what if.”
For UC Irvine, the victory sends the program to its eighth NCAA semifinal and reinforces a familiar postseason truth: once the bracket starts, seeding is just a number. The upset reshapes next weekend’s matchups and leaves Westwood looking for answers as the offseason begins.
