IRVINE, Calif. – Outside Hitter Joy Umeh had a match-high11 kills in UC Irvine's sweep of George Mason (25-13, 25-17, 25-15) in the first match of the UCI/adidas Invitational held at the Bren Events Center Friday.

The Anteaters hit a season-high .424 (45-9-85) as they improved to 3-1 overall.  UCI held George Mason (2-1) to under .100 hitting percentage in each set as the Patriots finished the match with a .071 (24-18-85) mark.

The Anteaters had 8.5 blocks, led by middle blocker Onye Ofeogbu with six block assists.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Umeh was the lone player with double-digit kills, hitting .444 (11-3-18)
>Ofoegbu followed Umeh with nine kills
>Freshmen Grace Colburn and Marianna Bertolone each had seven kills and three digs the win and combined for five block assists
>Opposite Ellen Veargason hit a career-high .714 (5-0-7) and added four digs and two block assists
>Middle blocker Kiani Stanton hit .667 (4-0-6) with three block assists
>Kelly Negron had 21 set assists and six digs, while Caitlin Kikta recorded 13 set assists and seven digs
>Libero Carly Richter made her Anteater debut and logged a match-high 13 digs

TURNING POINTS
FIRST SET
>UCI rolled off five straight points, which included a kill and block assist by Kiani Stanton to take a 10-6 advantage
>Grace Colburn had three consecutive kills to put the Anteaters ahead 19-11
>Back-to-back kills by Marianna Bertolone and Ellen Veargason ended the set, 25-13
>UCI hit .500 (15-1-28) to the Patriots .094 (8-5-32)

SECOND SET
>The set started with two UCI blocks followed by an ace from Carly Richter and a kill by Joy Umeh, 4-0
> A 5-0 spurt which was capped by a kill and block assist by Onye Ofoegbu put the Anteaters in front 17-8
>George Mason got within 19-13 with the help of three consecutive attack errors
>A kill by Colburn ended the set, 25-17

THIRD SET
>Ofoegbu hung in the air and hit the ball with her left hand to move the score to 13-8
>UCI jumped out to an 8-2 lead which included two kills by Ellen Veargason and an ace by Colburn
>Another kill and block assist by Ofeogbu moved the advantage to 17-9
>A Colburn kill gave UCI set point, 24-15 before a George Mason attempt sailed long to end the match, 25-15  

NOTES
>Umeh led the team in kills for the second time this season
>Eight different Anteaters put away a kill

 
UP NEXT
UCI will be back in action tonight, playing Southern Utah at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Center.