La Jolla, Calif. – No. 2 UC Irvine used a balanced offensive attack to sweep No. 12 UC San Diego, 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-20) in the regular season finale at the RIMAC Arena Saturday.
UCI is 21-5 overall and 17-5 in the MPSF and clinches the fourth seed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation post-season. The Anteaters tied BYU and Stanford for second place in the standings but due to tiebreakers are the fourth seed and will host No. 5 UCLA in a MPSF quarterfinal match next Saturday (Apr. 21) at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Center. UCI improves to 10-1 on the road this year. UCSD ends the season 9-19 overall and 6-16 in the MPSF.
UCI was led by junior Kevin Tillie with 13 kills followed by senior Carson Clark with 11 kills. Middle blocker Dan McDonnell hit .778 with eight kills on nine attempts and one error. He also recorded six total blocks. Outside hitter Connor Hughes added seven kills and a match-high nine digs. Setter Chris Austin had a career and match-high seven block assists to go with 36 set assists and six digs.
UCI hit .436 (43-9-78) for the match and had 11 blocks and five aces. UCSD hit just .136 and had three blocks and two aces. The Tritons were led by Carl Eberts with seven kills. Cheyne Hayes totaled six kills and Garrett Dempsey recorded 21 set assists in the loss.
UCI hit .542 (15-2-24) and won the first set 25-19. A kill by Kevin Tillie was followed by a block by Dan McDonnell and Chris Austin to open a 9-4 Anteater lead. UCSD closed to 10-7 before a pair of Tillie service aces pushed the advantage to 13-7. UCI would score four of the last five points to win the set.
The Tritons would open the second set with a 4-1 lead and continued to hold a 6-3 cushion when the Anteaters went on a 4-1 spurt which was capped by two blocks by McDonnell to tie the set 7-7. UCI would have three consecutive service errors to help UCSD to a 14-11 advantage. A kill by Scott Kevorken, a service ace by Connor Hughes and three straight blocks plus a Triton attack error and a Hughes kill gave UCI a 18-14 lead. The Anteaters would win the set 25-16 behind the strength of 5.5 blocks.
UCI jumped out to an early 4-1 and 6-3 lead in the third set and would go on to a 25-20 victory.
MPSF Quarterfinal Match-Ups For April 21
No. 8 Cal State Northridge at No. 1 USC
No. 7 Pepperdine at No. 2 Stanford
No. 6 Long Beach State at No. 3 BYU
No. 5 UCLA at No. 4 UC Irvine
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