IRVINE, Calif. – No. 5 UC Irvine improved to 8-0 in five set matches with a 3-2 victory (27-29, 25-19, 25-18, 21-25, 17-15) over No. 8 Pepperdine on Senior Night at the Bren Events Center.
UCI closed out the regular season with a 13-5 MPSF record, going to 19-6 overall. The Anteaters, who extended their winning streak to eight in a row, finished fourth in the MPSF and will host fifth-seed UCLA Sat. (Apr. 15) at the Bren Events Center in a quarterfinal match.
Senior setter Michael Saeta fired four aces and set a new school record for aces in a season at UCI with 62. The lefty bettered Carson Clark's 2012 mark of 61. Saeta also recorded seven kills, 60 set assists and eight digs in the win.
UCI outside hitters carried the offensive load, led by senior Tamir Hershko (.421) and junior Aaron Koubi (.400) with 21 kills. Hershko added three aces, while Koubi had three block assists. Senior Thomas Hodges totaled 17 kills and senior libero Dillon Hoffman tied his career-high with a match-high 19 digs. Middle blocker Scott Stadick pitched in five kills and a match-best six total blocks and middle blocker Matthew Youngren added three kills and three blocks.
David Wieczorek led Pepperdine with 19 kills and eight digs. Noah Dyer had 10 kills and Soren Dion-Kindem had 46 set assists, 10 digs and four total blocks.
In the first set, Pepperdine started with a quick 3-0 advantage and continued to lead 19-16 before UCI came back with the next four points, a kill and three consecutive aces by Tamir Hershko to take a 20-19 lead. Back-to-back UCI attack errors moved the Waves back in front 21-20. An Aaron Koubi kill and a Pepperdine attack that went wide gave UCI the 22-21 advantage. The teams would continue to trade points until a UCI service error was followed by a kill by David Wieczorek to give the Waves the set, 29-27.
UCI evened the match with a 25-19 win in the second set. A 7-1 run which included back-to-back aces by Michael Saeta gave UCI control of the set, 15-9. Hershko lead UCI with six kills in the set.
The Anteaters had three early blocks as UCI jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the third set, hitting .800 (4-0-5) to Pepperdine's -.333 (2-5-9) forcing a Wave timeout. Consecutive kills by Thomas Hodges and Hershko pushed the advantage to 19-13 and the Anteaters would go on to win the set, 25-18 on a block by Scott Stadick and Saeta.
In a closely contested fourth set, Pepperdine would sneak ahead 16-13 on a kill by Colby Harriman and a UCI attack error. UCI would get as close as one the rest of the way with the Waves winning 25-21.
UCI would lead 12-10 on a Hershko kill in the fifth set, before Pepperdine had a kill and back-to-back blocks to go in front 13-12. The teams would side-out until a Wave attack error and two Hodges kills kept the Anteaters perfect in five-set matches, 17-15.
