Irvine, Calif. – No. 2 UC Irvine swept UC San Diego, 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-12) in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Bren Center Saturday afternoon.

UC Irvine wins its first MPSF match (1-2) of the year and improves to 5-2 overall. UCSD goes to 2-4 on the year and 1-2 in conference action.

UCI All-American Carson Clark led all players with 13 kills and three service aces. Sophomore outside hitters Jeremy Dejno and Connor Hughes added eight and six kills, respectively. Middle blocker Dan McDonnell had five kills and three block assists to go with a career-best three aces, while middle blocker Austin D'Amore hit .667 (4-0-6) with four block assists. Sophomore setter Daniel Stork recorded 34 set assists and four block assists and freshman libero Michael Brinkley had a team best seven digs.

UC San Diego was led by Vaun Lennon with nine kills followed by Greg Smith with eight and Carl Eberts with six kills. Eberts and Chase Frishman had a team-high four digs. Setter Mike Brunting played two sets and totaled 20 set assists.   

UCI out-hit the Tritons, .469-.219 and had more blocks (8-3) and aces (7-1).

Back-to-back aces by Dan McDonnell were followed by a solo block by Carson Clark, another ace by McDonnell and a block by Connor Hughes and Austin D'Amore to give UCI a 12-7 cushion in the first set. The Anteaters would commit just one error in the game (12-1-27) and take the set 25-19.

With the score tied at 11-11 in the second set, UCI used kills by Clark and D'Amore to take a 13-11 advantage and would never trail again as they won the game, 25-19. UCI ended the set on a block by McDonnell and Daniel Stork.

UCI jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead in the third set and cruised to a 25-12 victory.

Next week, UCI hosts No. 7 Pepperdine on Wednesday (Jan. 25) and No. 5 USC Friday (Jan. 27). Both matches begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center. For ticket information click here.

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