No. 5 UC Irvine Hosts Final Two Regular Season Matches
April 05, 2017 | Men's Volleyball
REGULAR SEASON WRAPS UP
No. 5 UC Irvine will host No. 9 Stanford Friday (Apr. 7) and No. 8 Pepperdine Saturday (Apr. 8) at the Bren Events Center to close out the regular season. Both matches start at 7:00 p.m.
SPECIAL CELEBRATIONS
On Friday, UCI will celebrate its 2007 National Championship team. The Anteaters won their first of four national championships with a 3-1 victory over IPFW at St. John Arena in Columbus, OH. UCI, who went 29-5 overall, captured their first MPSF title with 3-2 victories over Hawaii, BYU and Pepperdine to advance to the NCAAs.
The senior class of Michael Saeta, Tamir Hershko, Thomas Hodges, Dillon Hoffman and Andrew Benz will be honored following Saturday's match.
CARDINAL PART 2
The Anteaters and Cardinal met last week in Palo Alto with UCI taking a 3-1 victory. Thomas Hodges led the Anteaters with 18 kills followed by Aaron Koubi with 16 kills. The Anteaters hit .352 to Stanford's .269
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS
UCI trails both Stanford and Pepperdine in the series records, but beat each team, 3-1 in the first meeting of the year.
Stanford is 12-11 overall and 7-9 in the MPSF, while Pepperdine is 9-10 and 7-9 in the MPSF coming off a 3-0 win against UC San Diego. The Waves will meet the Tritons again on Friday before coming to the Bren.
ON THE RECORD
UCI is 17-6 overall and 11-5 in the MPSF. The Anteaters, who were on the road the last seven matches, are 6-3 at home and 11-3 away from Irvine this season.
STREAKING
The Anteaters have won the last six matches and nine of the last 10 outings. The six straight victories is the longest winning streak of the year for UCI.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
While the Anteaters have clinched a MPSF post-season berth, the Anteaters can lock up a top-four seed and quarterfinal home court match with two wins at home this week. UCI can finish anywhere between third and fifth depending on the outcome of the two UCLA/Hawaii matches. Should UCI lose once, it would then need UCLA to lose at least once to Hawaii to play at home in the quarters. UCI does not hold any possible two or three-way tiebreakers.
SENIORS LEAD
The senior class has accounted for 699 of UCI's 1,203 kills, 94 of the team's 129 aces and 498 of the Anteaters' 718 digs.
Tamir Hershko leads the squad with a 3.14 kill average, which ranks 13th among MPSF players.
Michael Saeta is ranked second in aces (0.61), eighth in set assists (9.17) and 11th in hitting percentage (.407) in the MPSF. He ranks fourth nationally in aces.
Saeta is second in aces in a season with 55 currently and also holds the third and 10th marks. He is second all-time at UCI in aces (153) and seventh in set assists (2,459).
Thomas Hodges is second on the team with a 2.92 kill average. He is second on the team with 22 aces.
Dillon Hoffman is 14th nationally and fourth in the MPSF with a 2.35 dig average. He has recorded digs in double-figures 10 times this season.
Andrew Benz is averaging 1.21 kills and 0.52 blocks per game. The middle blocker recorded 11 kills against UC San Diego earlier this season, which tied his career-high.
KOUBI CONTRIBUTIONS
Koubi has played in 39 sets and is averaging 2.79 kills. He has six double-digit kill performances, including a career-high 20 in the win at CSUN.
Since Koubi has joined the Anteater starting lineup, UCI has gone 8-1. The junior has led the team in kills twice.
AT THE NET
Freshman Scott Stadick has made an impact at the net this season. The 7-0 footer ranks third in the nation in hitting percentage (.445) and eighth in blocks (1.11).
He ranks fourth on the team with a 1.95 kill average.
IN THE NATIONAL STATISTICS
The team is third in the country in assists (12.63), fourth in kills (13.37), sixth in hitting percentage (.317) and ninth in aces (1.43).
