THIS WEEK
No. 1 UC Irvine at No. 4 Stanford · Friday, Feb. 8 · 6:30 p.m. · Burnham Pavillion
Live Stats Audio
No. 1 UC Irvine at No. 11 Pacific · Saturday, Feb. 9 · 7:00 p.m. · Spanos Center
Live Stats Audio Video
QUICK HITS
No. 1 UC Irvine remains on the road this week, traveling to Northern California to face No. 4 Stanford Friday (Feb. 8) at 6:30 p.m. in Burnham Pavilion and No. 11 Pacific on Saturday (Feb. 9) at 7:00 p.m. in the Alex G. Spanos Center.
UCI trails Stanford (30-14), but leads Pacific (25-10) in the series records.
Last year, UCI won two out of three meetings against Stanford, including a 3-2 victory in the MPSF championship match. Kevin Tillie had a career-high 24 kills and 13 digs to lead UCI, while Connor Hughes totaled a career-high 19 kills and hit .515 (19-2-33) from the outside.
Stanford is 7-3 overall and 4-3 in the MPSF. They are 6-0 at home and 1-3 on the road.
Pacific enters the week 4-3 on the year and 2-3 in the MPSF.
UCI is tied for first with BYU in the AVCA Coaches Poll this week. The Anteaters also held the top spot for the first three weeks of the season. The Anteaters have been ranked in the nation's top 15 for 125 consecutive weeks. UCI is ranked No. 1 by itself in the Volleyball Magazine Top 10 poll.
The Anteaters have been ranked No. 1 in six different years (2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013). The Anteaters have held the No. 1 spot for 31 weeks all-time.
Middle blocker Collin Mehring leads the MPSF with a .553 hitting percentage, while Scott Kevorken ranks sixth (.461) and Kevin Tillie is 15th (.347). Mehring ranks 14th in blocks (1.08).
Tillie also ranks eighth in kills (3.88) and points (4.44) as well as 12th in service aces (0.28).
Libero Michael Brinkley is third among MPSF players in digs with a 2.72 average, while Jeremy Dejno is 15th in kills (3.06)
Zack La Cavera ranks ninth in service aces (0.34), 10th in points (4.12) and 12th in kills (3.48) in the MPSF.
Setters Chris Austin (9.54) and Daniel Stork (9.14) rank ninth and 10th respectively in set assists.
UCI improved its winning streak to four with a 3-2 victory over UCLA and a 3-0 win against UC Santa Barbara on the road last week.
The four consecutive wins ties the season's longest streak when the Anteaters won the first four contests.
Against UCLA, libero Michael Brinkley posted a career-high 20 digs, which ranks fourth overall at UCI and is the second best mark in the rally-scoring era behind Brent Asuka's 21 set in 2007.
Brinkley's 20 digs is tied for the most in the conference this season.
Tillie led the UCI offense against the Bruins with 17 kills followed by La Cavera with 15 kills and a season-high eight digs. Tillie also led UCI against UC Santa Barbara with 18 kills and a .485 hitting (18-3-33).
UCI returns home on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) for a 7:00 p.m. match with UC Santa Barbara in the Bren Events Center.
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