Long Beach, Calif. – UC Irvine outside hitter Kyle Russell had a season-high 13 kills in a 3-0 sweep (25-21, 25-19, 25-23) of No. 11 Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid Saturday.

The sixth-ranked Anteaters win their fifth straight match and improve to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in the MPSF. UCI is the first team to take a set off LBSU and beat the Forty-Niners who go to 4-1 on the year and 1-1 in the MPSF.  

Russell recorded two aces and three digs to go with his match-high 13 kills. Outside hitter Tamir Hershko added 11 kills, while opposite Zack La Cavera had 10 kills, hitting .562 (10-1-16). Middle blocker Andrew Benz totaled five kills and three block assists and middle blocker Jason Agopian tallied four kills and three block assists. Libero Michael Brinkley had a season-high 12 digs and setter Michael Saeta fired three aces to go with 37 set assists.

Long Beach State's Cody Martin recorded a team-best eight kills and three aces. Dan Glamack and Taylor Gregory added five kills in the loss.

Long Beach State took a 13-10 lead in the first set before UCI scored four straight points to take the 14-13 lead. With the score knotted at 18, UCI went on a 5-0 run which included two kills by Tamir Hershko and a block by Jason Agopian and Zack La Cavera. A kill by Kyle Russell ended the set 25-20.

The Forty-Niners started quickly at 3-0 in the second set and continued to lead 8-5 until a LBSU error was followed by a kill out of the back row by Kyle Russell and a Michael Saeta ace allowing the Anteaters to catch up (8-8). Back-to-back kills by Russell and Hershko, a rotation error by the Forty-Niners and another kill by Hershko helped UCI to an 18-14 lead. LBSU would close to 21-19, but two more Russell kills and two Forty-Niner errors gave UCI the set 25-19. Russell led UCI with eight kills in the set.

In the third set, Cody Martin served three aces to extend the Forty-Niner lead to 8-4. A kill and back-to-back aces by Russell gave UCI the 10-9 lead then behind the serving of Saeta, which included an ace, UCI went up 14-11. An ace and a block rallied LBSU to tie the set at 17-17. At 21-21 a Russell kill and a Long Beach attack error gave the Anteaters the 23-21 advantage and UCI would go on to a 25-23 victory.