Irvine, Calif. – Senior All-American Kevin Tillie had a season-high 21 kills to lead No. 3 UC Irvine to a 3-2 (23-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-16, 15-13) victory over No. 7 Long Beach State at the Bren Center Friday.
The Anteaters, who win their seventh in row against the Forty-Niners, improve to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in the MPSF, while Long Beach is 5-3 on the year and 3-2 in the MPSF.
With the win, UC Irvine earns two points in the Black & Blue Rivalry Series presented by Duke's of Huntington Beach to bring the season total to LBSU 9, UCI 7.
Tillie hit .450 (21-3-40) and added an ace and tied his season-high with eight digs. Opposite Zack La Cavera, who missed the last three matches due to an injury, came off the bench to record 14 kills, three aces and six digs. Outside hitter Jeremy Dejno had 13 kills in three sets, while middle blocker Collin Mehring recorded eight kills and a team-best three total blocks. Setter Daniel Stork started the match and totaled 31 set assists before going out with an injury in the third set. Senior Chris Austin stepped in and recorded 25 set assists, two digs and a block assist. Middle blocker Jason Agopian added three kills and libero Michael Brinkley totaled a match-high nine digs.
Long Beach State was led by Taylor Crabb with 14 kills and eight digs and Dalton Ammerman with 11 kills. The Forty-Niners out-blocked UCI 9-4, but the Anteaters held a 35-29 dig advantage. UCI fired seven aces to LBSU's 2.
Long Beach State scored three straight on a pair of kills by Taylor Crabb and a block by Jeff Ornee and Taylor Gregory to take a 14-13 lead in the first set. The Forty-Niners continued to lead until UCI used kills by Jeremy Dejno and Kevin Tillie to knot the score at 23-23 all. Long Beach would win the set, 25-23 on a kill by Taylor Crabb that was followed by an Anteater miscommunication that let a dig hit the floor. The Anteaters out-hit Long Beach, .419 to .400, but committed eight service errors.
UC Irvine serving was the key to the second set as the Anteaters recorded four aces and caused several Long Beach overpasses. UCI opened the set with a 7-3 lead and never looked back, hitting .500 (19-5-28) and winning the set 25-19.
In the third set, Long Beach State would score four straight to take an 8-4 advantage. That was all the separation they would need as the Anteaters could only get as close as three the rest of the set and the Forty-Niners won 25-20. UCI hit just .067 (11-9-30).
UCI had a 7-3 lead in the fourth set then extended the advantage to 17-9 on a Forty-Niner attack error and kills by Zack La Cavera and Connor Hughes. UCI would win 25-16 and force a fifth set largely behind La Cavera who hit 1.000 (7-0-7).
In the final set, UCI led 8-4 before LBSU went on a 4-1 run to narrow the margin to 9-8. A kill by Collin Mehring was followed by a service ace by Travis Woloson to give UCI match point 14-12. A kill by Tillie ended the set 15-13 and the match 3-2. UCI spread out the offense with six different players recording a kill in the set.
Next, UCI returns to the road, traveling to UCLA Tuesday (Jan. 29) and UC Santa Barbara Wednesday (Jan. 30).
_____________________________________________________________
For UC Irvine Athletics ticket information, please call (949) 824-5000 or e-mail athletics.tickets@uci.edu. For more information click here.
For information on how you can help support UC Irvine Athletics, please call (949) 824-6933 or e-mail aaf@uci.edu. For additional information, click here.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
