Irvine, Calif. – No. 1 UC Irvine used a season-high 18.5 blocks to defeat No. 12 Cal Baptist, 3-2 (25-19, 25-19, 24-26, 16-25, 15-11) at the Bren Events Center Wednesday.
The Anteaters improve to 15-3 overall and 12-3 in the MPSF and extend their winning streak to 11 matches. Cal Baptist drops to 6-9 on the year and 3-7 in the MPSF. The Anteaters are 5-1 in five-set matches this year.
Middle blocker Collin Mehring had a career-high 10 total blocks on two solos and eight block assists to lead UCI at the net. The Anteaters had seven different players record a block. Mehring also added six kills.
UCI senior All-American Kevin Tillie had a team-high 13 kills, two aces and four block assists, while opposite Zack La Cavera recorded 12 kills and a career-high seven block assists. Connor Hughes played in four sets and added eight kills and middle blocker Scott Kevorken totaled six kills and five block assists. Setter Daniel Stork tallied 43 set assists, six digs and a tied his season-high with six total blocks. Libero Michael Brinkley posted 17 digs.
UCI hit .220 (49-21-127), the second lowest hitting performance of the year. Cal Baptist hit just .170 (56-33-135) for the night. The Lancers out-dug UCI 49-38 and had five aces to the Anteaters' four.
Cal Baptist's Guilherme Koepp led all players with 17 kills, 12 digs and four aces. Levi Cabral had 15 kills and Aaron McCalmont had 12 kills. Rocky DeLyon had a team-best seven block assists for the Lancers.
UCI opened a 7-4 lead in the first set on three straight points on kills by Jeremy Dejno and Zack La Cavera and a Lancer attack error. Cal Baptist would score three of their own to close to 11-10. A Lancer service error stopped the streak and the teams would trade points until UCI had a kill by Scott Kevorken followed by two Cal Baptist errors to push the lead to 17-13. UCI would win the set 25-19.
Cal Baptist jumped ahead 7-5 in the second set, but UCI regained the lead 8-7 on a Daniel Stork solo block. Cal Baptist held a 13-12 advantage before the Anteaters went on a 10-3 run which included five blocks, four by Collin Mehring to give UCI the 22-16 lead. La Cavera would end the set 25-19 with a kill. UCI recorded eight blocks in the set.
The Anteaters held a 14-11 advantage on a Connor Hughes kill, but Cal Baptist rallied to tie the score at 17-17 on a long rally that ended with a kill by Aaron McCalmont. Two Lancer blocks and kills by Levi Cabral and Guiherme Koepp put Cal Baptist ahead 22-19. A block by Mehring and Hughes was followed by a kill by Tillie to knot the score at 23s. The teams swapped points until Cal Baptist used a Levi Cabral kill and a UCI attack error to end the set, 26-24.
In the fourth set, Koepp had back-to-back aces to give Cal Baptist the 8-4 lead. Three straight Anteater errors opened the Lancer lead to 20-12 and they would go on to take the set 25-16.
In the final set, the teams were tied 8-8 a kills by Hughes and a Lancer attack error gave the Anteaters the 10-8 advantage. The teams would each score a point then another kill by Hughes and two Lancer balls that flew wide opened UCI's cushion to 13-9. The teams would side out with the match winner coming on a Cal Baptist service error.
No. 1 UCI will battle No. 2 BYU Friday (Mar. 1) at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center. Buy tickets now.
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