Box Score
PRESS CONFERENCE     PHOTO GALLERY

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Third-seeded UC Irvine spread the offense and turned on the block to beat sixth-seeded UC San Diego 3-0 (26-24, 25-15, 25-14) in a quarterfinal match of the Big West Championship at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Anteater block ignited the win, owning a 12-3 advantage at the net. The Anteaters hit .408 (42-11-76), the sixth best offensive performance of the year.

MIDDLE BLOCKER SCOTT STADICK SAID
"We wanted to play our game and come out with fire and intensity and dominate the net. They are a good team and were hitting their shots early."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Aaron Koubi led the Anteaters with 11 kills, hitting .556 (11-1-18). He also topped the team in digs with seven
>Joel Scheidmiller hit .471, recording 10 kills on 17 attempts and two errors
>The middle blockers were hot with Patrick Sohacki adding eight kills (.636) and Scott Stadick adding seven (.500)
>Stadick had a match-best eight total blocks with a career-high four solo blocks
>Wyatt Harrison led the Tritons with seven kills

TURNING POINTS
SET ONE
>UC San Diego would jump out to a 7-4 lead on a block
>The Anteaters could not make a run and back-to-back points by the Tritons would move the score to 15-10 at the media timeout
>A 3-1 run by UCI, which included three kills by Joel Schneidmiller closed the gap to 18-16 forcing a UCSD timeout
>UCI would get within 19-18 on a Aaron Koubi kill, but the Tritons would score the next three to move the gap back to 22-18
>Kills by Koubi and Patrick Sohacki and two Triton attack errors moved the Anteaters to 23-22
>Out of a Triton timeout, a Connor Walbrecht kill gave UCSD set point 24-22
>A solo block by Scott Stadick started the UCI rally
>A kill by Schneidmiller was followed by another solo by Stadick and a block by Stadick and Dante Chakravorti to win the set, 26-24
>The Anteaters finished the set on an 8-2 spurt

SECOND SET
>UCI out-scored UCSD 5-0 with a kill and another solo by Stadick to give UCI a 7-3 lead
>Another 5-0 run which included a kill by Chakravorti, another block by Stadick with Koubi and an ace by Karl Apfelbach, 12-4
>Kills by Koubi and Schneidmiller were followed by a Triton attack that sailed long to move the lead to 15-5
>UC San Diego would score three straight before Koubi hammered the ball to the floor, stopping the momentum, 21-13
>A kill by Stadick would end the set, 25-15
>The Anteaters hit .500 (13-2-22) in the set

THIRD SET
>A kill by Stadick and two Triton errors helped UCI jump out to an 8-4 lead
>Two more kills by Stadick and back-to-back blocks by Schnedmiller and Stadick extended the Anteater lead to 13-6
>Sohacki and Koubi would put away kills before Apfelbach had a huge solo block to force a San Diego timeout, 19-10
>The Anteaters would end the match, 25-14 on a Chakravorti kill

NOTES
>UCI has won 19 straight against UCSD
>The Anteaters have out-blocked their opponents each of the last five matches
>Dante Chakravorti totaled 31 set assists and led UCI to its sixth match with a .400 or better hitting percentage
>Karl Apfelbach fired two aces to up his season total to 40
>This was a repeat match-up from the 2018 championship first round

UP NEXT
>UCI will take on host and second-seed Hawaii at approximately 10:30 p.m. PT in the second of two semifinals