SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- UC Irvine enjoyed its first sweep of the season, defeating Portland 25-22, 25-19, 25-20 Saturday to conclude the Aztec Invitational at San Diego State. Aly Squires and Kristin Winkler earned all-tournament honors following the conclusion of the San Diego State-Nevada match.

Squires led the team with 60 kills and 11 total blocks while posting four aces and 33 digs to finish second among the Anteater leaders. Squires posted 20 or more kills in two of the three matches while adding 17 digs for her first double-double match of the season in the four-set win against Nevada. It was her best all-around effort as the outside hitter also had five blocks and recorded a career-high four aces.

Winkler scooped up 42 digs in three matches, picking up 15 digs in the UCI's wins against Nevada and Portland. Winkler also had three aces in tournament action.

In the match, the Anteaters (2-1) were paced by Aly Squires, who hit .297, totaling 16 kills on 37 attempts while adding three blocks. Shaina Olsen chipped in 11 kills while Kristin Winkler topped all players with 15 digs. Setter Mary Carls handed out 38 assists in the win.

A kill by Pauline Acres sparked a four-point run for the Anteaters, who broke away from a 10-10 tie to claim a 14-10 advantage on an ace by Winkler. Portland responded with a four-point rally of its own to catch UCI at 15 points apiece as Kati Hronek denied Olsen at the net. Portland took a 22-21 lead to prompt a UCI timeout but the Anteaters received a set-tying kill from Shannon Fleming and Acres teamed up with Alexandra Hauser to send back a Hroneck attempt for the 23-22 UCI lead. Following a  Portland error, the Anteater block came through again as Olsen and Hauser blocked Autumn Wedan for the winning point.

Portland built an early 6-2 lead in the second set but UCI would catch the Pilots at 10-10 on an attack error by Bea Loper. Portland reclaimed the lead again at 16-13 following back-to-back kills by Hronek, who posted a team-high nine kills, but UCI worked itself back into the set by capitalizing on a pair of unforced errors by the Pilots. With the score knotted at 17 points apiece, Carls went to Squires for a kill and Squires later teamed up with Fleming for the block to highlight a three-point run and give UCI a 20-17 edge. Following a kill by Kate Bostwick for Portland, the Anteaters scored four straight points to end the set at 25-19.

Neither team was able to establish a comfortable lead early in the third set but with the score tied at 17-17, Hauser sandwiched an error by Bostwick with two kills to give UCI a three-point lead and force a Portland timeout. The Pilots was unable to make a dent in the three-point deficit and at 23-20, Squires put the match away with consecutive kills. 

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