Riverside—Mickayla Sherman tallied 17 kills in a 3-1 loss to UC Irvine at the SRC Arena Saturday night.

In the opening set, the clubs played point-for-point with neither establishing a notable margin. With the score knotted at 26, Sherman forced at attack error to give the Highlanders set point. Chelsea Doyle then found Brooke Callahan for the set clinching kill to put the home side up 1-0.

Sherman, Doyle and Cristina Maietta each had three kills in an opening set that saw UCR force UC Irvine into 10 attack errors.

UCR led 24-21 late in the second set with three chances to closeout the set and go up 2-0, but the Anteaters staved off three set points in the midst of a 5-0 run that gave them the second 26-24 and evened the match at a apiece. Sherman had six kills, while Maietta and Jordyn Griggs had three each. 

After intermission, the third set saw the Eaters' go ahead 19-13 midway through the set, and they would hang on to win third set by that same six-point margin, 25-19.

In the fourth set, the Highlanders trailed 18-6, before battling back into the set by taking 10 of 15 points to get the score to 23-16, but they were unable to hold off UC Irvine from taking the third set 25-17, and the match 3-1.

Sherman's 17 kills led all players. She joined in double-digit kills by Maietta, who had 10. Griggs recorded a season-high nine digs on 22 attempts for a team-leading .364 attack percentage. 

The Anteaters got double-digit kills from four players, and outhit the Highlanders .276 to .160 for the match.

UC Riverside will complete its four-match home stand with a pair of games on ESPN3. Friday, October 14th they'll host UC Santa Barbara, and on Saturday the Highlanders welcome Cal Poly to the Inland Empire.