UC Irvine
Minnesota
Anteaters Swept By Golden Gophers
September 11, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. --- UC Irvine was unable to keep up with Minnesota, losing 25-15, 25-15, 25-19 Friday evening at the Diet Coke Classic.
Victoria Dennis paced the 3-4 Anteaters with 10 kills and Harlee Kekauoha hit .350 while tapping down eight kills in 20 swings with just one error. Shelley Anderson totaled 16 assists and Arden Davis paced the team with eight digs.
The Golden Gophers jumped out of the gate in the first, building a 10-5 lead on a service ace by Daly Santana. UCI never threatened, falling behind by seven points (18-11) after a Santana kill. The rally was briefly halted by a Minnesota service error but the Anteaters were unable to make a dent in the deficit, losing the set on a pair of kills from Santana and Paige Tapp.
The second set mirrored the first with the Anteaters falling quickly behind, 10-6. UCI managed to better its first-set hitting percentage with a .241 clip but the Golden Gophers were red-hot, hitting .485. The lead quickly grew to 11 at 17-9 and it would be Tapp again with the set-winning kill.
UCI struggled with a .129 percentage in the final set but battled to keep the frame close early. The Anteaters edged out from a 6-6 tie by stringing together four unanswered points to lead 10-6 on a kill as Emily Blair found Dennis for the put-away. Minnesota quickly answered and knotted the score at 11 apiece as Molly Lohman aced Samantha Frost to end a 5-1 run. The two sides rallied to keep the score close but at 16-16, a kill by Tapp, an unforced error by Dennis and an ace from Samantha Seliger-Swenson put the Gophers ahead by three (19-16). Consecutive kills stretched the lead to four (23-19) and Tapp made it a hat-trick with the match-winning kill.
UCI takes the court again Saturday at 10:00 a.m. against UCF and then take on North Dakota State at 2:30 p.m.
_________________________________________________________________
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, Twitter and by downloading the UCI Front Row app, available free to all Anteater fans through iTunes and Google Play, to view schedules, results, and up-to-the-minute news.
