IRVINE, Calif. – UC Irvine started the 2021 season winning the first set, but ended up falling to Hawaii 3-1 (25-22, 16-25, 13-25, 17-25) at the Bren Events Center Sunday.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Senior All-American Joel Schneidmiller led the Anteaters with 17 kills, hitting .483. The outside hitter also added six digs and two blocks
>Newcomers Francesco Sani recorded nine kills in his debut, while Cole Gillis added eight kills and a team-best two aces
>Scott Stadick and Patrick Vorenkamp topped the squad with four total blocks each
>Setter Brian Garcia had a team-best 28 set assists, while Davis Lau paced the Anteaters with a career-high eight digs
>Colton Cowell and Rado Parapunov led Hawaii with 13 kills each. Cowell fired five aces
>Service game was strong for the Rainbow Warriors with 10 aces. UCI had six on the night
>The Anteaters out-blocked UH 8.5-7

SET 1
>UCI started quickly with a kill by Scott Stadick then a block by Stadick and Francesco Sani
>The Anteaters built a 5-3 lead on Sani's first collegiate kill
>With a 3-1 run, Hawaii knotted the score at 6 all
>UCI scored three in a row on a kill and ace by Joel Schneidmiller and a block by Stadick and Cole Gillis
>Hawaii returned the favor with five straight to take their first lead of the match, 15-13
>The Anteaters had kills by Gills, Patrick Vorenkamp and Schniedmiller to draw even 16-16 before a triple block by Brian Garcia, Vorenkamp and Schneidmiller put UCI back on top 17-16
>Back-to-back kills by Schneidmiller and Sani gave UCI a 20-18 cushion
>The Anteaters wouldn't relinquish the lead winning the set 25-22 on a block by Garcia and Vorenkamp

SET 2
>Hawaii jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead with the help of three aces, two by Colton Cowell
>UCI went on a 5-1 spurt which included aces by Sani and Gillis to close within 10-7
>A UCI service error started a 3-0 run by Hawaii to widen the gap to 16-10
>Hawaii would go on to win 25-16 on a kill by Chaz Galloway

SET 3
>Once again Hawaii started fast with an 8-2 lead and then extended the margin to 13-4 forcing a UCI timeout
>A kill by Schneidmiller and an ace by Vorenkamp brought the Anteaters to 15-7
>A Kill by Patrick Gasman would end the set 25-13

SET 4
>A Stadick and Schneidmiller block was followed by a Garcia ace to give UCI a 3-2 advantage
>Hawaii would score the next four to take a 6-3 lead
>A 7-1 run which included two aces by moved UH to 15-6
>The Anteaters would never score more than two in row and would watch Hawaii end the contest 25-17 on a final Cowell kill.

SENIOR OUTSIDE HITTER JOEL SCHEDNIEMILLER SAID:
"We focus on being grateful so we were happy to be out there playing volleyball and being in the Bren. We were hyped-up coming in to that first set and I think it showed and maybe too high at some points, its hard, you lose energy and it's hard to maintain that high amount and we lost our consistency."

COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID:
"The objective is to just clean up what we are already doing. We need to execute on the things we know we can execute on. I'm super excited about this team. I think we do some really neat things. I've enjoyed working with this group and excited to see where we go."

NOTES
>This is the first match for the Anteaters since the 2020 season was halted on March 7
>This is the first opening season loss for the 'Eaters since 2015
>Schneidmiller has a streak of five consecutive matches with double-figure kills dating back to last season
>Garo Barsemain and Dylan Zhai also made their collegiate debuts

UP NEXT
>The two teams will meet again tomorrow (Feb. 22) for a 7:00 p.m. first serve from the Bren Events Center.