THIS WEEK 
MPSF Match
No. 4 Stanford at No. 6 UC Irvine · Friday, Apr. 11 · 7:00 p.m. · Bren Center
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Pacific at No. 6 UC Irvine · Friday, Apr. 12 · 7:00 p.m. · Bren Center
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QUICK HITS

No. 6 UC Irvine will battle No. 4 Stanford Friday (Apr. 11) and Pacific on Saturday (Apr. 12). Both matches begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Center. 

Fans attending Friday's match versus Stanford should allow enough time for parking as a baseball game and track meet will impact the Mesa Structure.

UCI's five seniors (Jeremy Dejno, Connor Hughes, Scott Kevorken, Collin Mehring, Daniel Stork) will be honored on Saturday.  The senior class has won two national championships in their tenure at UCI.

UCI has won eight of its last nine matches and is 17-9 overall and 14-8 in the MPSF.

Seeding for the MPSF Tournament is up for grabs in the final week of the regular season. The top four teams host a quarterfinal match on April 19.

The Anteaters control their own fate, needing wins to solidify a home match in the quarterfinals.  Due to holding tiebreakers even if UCI were to drop two matches this week they would qualify for the post-season.

UCI holds two-way tiebreakers over Long Beach State (+ 2 head-to-head points), Hawaii and UCSB (2-0 head-to-head matches), Pepperdine (4-3 head-to-head sets), and USC (+5 head-to-head points).

MPSF Standings as of April 7th
BYU 18-4
Pepperdine 16-6
Stanford 15-7
UCSB 14-8
UC Irvine 14-8
LBSU 13-9
Hawai'i 13-9
UCLA 13-9
USC 14-10 

UCI trails Stanford 31-16 all-time. The Cardinal snapped a four-match losing streak against the Anteaters with a 3-0 victory in Maples Pavilion earlier this year.

In the last meeting, Zack La Cavera led UCI with nine kills. Steven Irvin had a match-high 14 kills for Stanford while hitting .522. Eric Mochalski recorded 12 kills, hitting .526 and collecting seven digs. 

Stanford is the hottest team in the MPSF, winning nine straight matches. The Cardinal are 18-7 overall and 15-7 in the MPSF.

UCI holds a 28-10 advantage over Pacific in the series records with the Anteaters winning the last 14 outings.

In Stockton, Scott Kevorken put away a season-best 12 kills to go with two aces and a team-high three blocks. Jeremy Dejno led the team with 13 kills. Pacific was led by Thomas Hodges with a match-high 14 kills.

The Tigers are 2-20 in the MPSF and 3-22 overall this season.  Saturday marks the final match for the program as the University will no longer sponsor men's volleyball. Tommy Carmody leads the MPSF in blocks with a 1.58 average.

Opposite Zack La Cavera leads the team with a 3.51 kill average. Nationally, the junior ranks 14th in aces (0.38) and 22nd in points (4.23). La Cavera ranks third in aces among MPSF players.

Jeremy Dejno follows La Cavera, averaging 3.15 kills per set. Connor Hughes averages 2.64 kills, while Tamir Hershko owns a 2.28 mark and Scott Kevorken averages 1.82 and Collin Mehring averages 1.51 kills per set. Mehring leads the team with a 1.08 blocking average.

The Anteaters rank fifth national in hitting percentage (.308), are seventh in kills (13.27) and eighth in aces (1.4). 12 different Anteaters have fired an ace this season.

UCI beat UC San Diego 3-1 on the road in the lone match last week to extend its winning streak to three straight.

The Anteaters hit a season-best .561 (63-8-98) which is the second best mark by an MPSF team this season and is tied for the seventh-best in MPSF rally-scoring history.

Dejno led all players with a match-high 20 kills, hitting .633 (20-1-30). Kevorken hit .875 with seven kills on eight swings and recorded a match-best four block assists. Hughes had 12 kills and Mehring totaled 10 kills and three block assists. Daniel Stork tallied 46 set assists and seven digs, while libero Michael Brinkley had a match-best 10 digs.

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