IRVINE, Calif. --- Top-ranked UC Irvine was handed its first loss of the season after suffering a sweep against No. 2 Brigham Young, 25-20, 25-21, 28-26 Friday at the Bren Events Center.
The Anteaters, who drop to 4-1 and 0-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, were led by Carson Clark and Jeremy Dejno, who had 11 kills apiece. Clark fired back-to-back aces in the first set to become UCI's all-time leader in service winners with 129, passing former Anteater Jayson Jablonsky (2004-07). Clark also topped all players with eight digs. Dejno committed just two errors in 21 attempts to hit .429 and setter Daniel Stork passed out 36 assists.
BYU (3-1, 1-0 MPSF) was paced by Taylor Sander, who put away 17 of 22 attempts with one miscue to hit .727. The Cougars out-blocked UCI 8-3 with Quentin Smith and Robb Stowell registering four block assists apiece. Stowell knocked down 14 kills and setter Joe Kauliakamoa totaled 44 assists.
The Anteaters jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set but BYU would use a three-point run to take a 10-9 edge. The two teams traded points until a kill from Sander followed by a UCI attempt that went wide put BYU ahead at 16-14. Austin D'Amore fired a baseline winner to pull UCI to within a point by 19-18 but Kauliakamoa found Stowell and then Sander for consecutive kills for the 21-18 lead. BYU would go on to win the set on a kill from Stowell as the Cougars hit .720 for the frame.
BYU built a 5-2 lead in the second set, prompting the early timeout from UCI. The Anteaters responded with three straight points and would catch the Cougars at 8-8. Sander capped a three-point BYU run with consecutive aces before Clark would go cross-court to halt BYU's rally (14-12). However, UCI would get no closer than two points the rest of the way. BYU's triple block gave the Cougars set point and a blocking error by the Anteaters put BYU ahead 2-0.
In the third set, aside from a 6-4 advantage by UCI, neither team would lead by more than one point through the first half of the frame. BYU broke through at 15-15 as Kauliakamoa first found Josue Rivera for a kill. Kauliakamoa then went to Sander, who sent the ball over the UCI block and dropped it into the back-court to give the Cougars a 17-15 edge. A BYU block coupled by a UCI attack error widened the margin to four points at 19-15. However Stork connected with Dejno on the ensuing play and D'Amore delivered his second ace of the match to cut the lead to two at 19-17. UCI continued to battle and would tie the score at 22-22 as D'Amore and Kevin Tillie paired up to deny Stowell at the net. BYU finally wrestled the match away from UCI at 26-26 as Kauliakamoa connected with Sander twice to close out the match.
The two teams meet against Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center.
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