UC Irvine looks for 5th place finish at its preseason tournament

For the third consecutive season, UC Irvine will not have a medal finish at its preseason international tournament.

UC Irvine finished Pool B in third place and will play Quicksilver on Friday in the consolation bracket of the Irvine International Volleyball Tournament.

The Anteaters won their pool-play opener against Beijing BAIC Motor, a professional team from China, on Monday. However, UC Irvine in its final two pool-play matches blew a two-game lead against Toray Arrows from Japan and lost to Drean Bolivar from Argentina to drop out of medal consideration.

The Irvine International Volleyball Tournament is an eight-team tournament and is the only preseason event featuring a college men’s volleyball team playing professional teams from around the world.

UC Irvine (1-2) will play Quicksilver in the fifth-place semifinals at 3 p.m. Friday.

Quicksilver (0-3) is a club team located in California and finished Pool A in last place. The team is comprised of several former NCAA players — including former Anteaters Jon Steller, Taylor Wilson, Ty Loomis and Paul Spittle.

UC Irvine has never finished better than fifth place in the three-year history of the tournament. In addition, its victory against Beijing was its second win all-time at the preseason event.

The winner of the UC Irvine-Quicksilver match will play the winner of the Beijing-Shanghai match in the fifth-place match on Saturday.

The two losers of these fifth-place semifinals matches will meet each other in the seventh-place match on Saturday.