IRVINE, Calif. – Sophomore Cole Gillis pounded a career-high 18 kills to lead UCI to a 3-2 upset (19-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-22, 15-12) over No. 2 Long Beach State at the Bren Events Center Thursday.

The Anteaters had the reverse sweep to pick up the Big West opener (7-8, 1-0) and extend the winning streak to four.

Gillis also had six digs, three block assists and an ace in win.

UC Irvine fired a season-high 12 aces led by freshman Hilir Henno with a career-high six. The opposite also had 17 kills.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Francesco Sani totaled 13 kills, two aces and three blocks assists
>Setter Patrick Vorenkamp had 49 set assists, matched his season-high with nine digs and tied his career-best with three aces
>Middle blockers Doug Dahm and Connor Campbell each had five kills and four total blocks
>Libero Cole Power popped up seven digs
>The Beach (10-3, 0-1) was led by Alex Nikolov and Oliver Spencer with 18 kills, a piece
>UCI out-dug LBSU 36-27, but the Beach held a 12-8.5 blocking advantage. Hitting was close with Long Beach hitting .269 and UCI hitting .268.

FIRST SET
>A kill by Doug Dahm was followed by a triple block by Hilir Henno, Cole Gillis and Dahm, 2-1
>Henno would roll two consecutive balls over the net for aces, 6-4
>A kill and a pair of Anteater attack errors gave LBSU an 11-8 lead
>A kill and another ace by Henno put UCI in front 17-14
>The Beach would rally out-scoring UCI 7-1 to move back in front 21-18
>Following a LBSU service error, Long Beach State would score the final four points, 25-19

SECOND SET
>LBSU broke away on four consecutive UCI attack errors
>The Beach would build a 20-14 lead before UCI went to work, scoring four unanswered on kills by Francesco Sani and Henno, an ace by Patrick Vorenkamp and a LBSU error
>Gillis would try to keep UCI close recording three kills in the last six points of the set, but the Anteaters ran out of time, 25-23

THIRD SET
>Patrick Vorenkamp started the set with an ace and then watched UCI jump out to an early 6-2 lead
>Another ace by Vorenkamp and kills by Sani and Henno extended the lead to 15-8
>Campbell returned a ball straight down in front of Nikolov to go up 23-14  
>A LBSU service error ended the set 25-17

FOURTH SET
>Behind Henno serving UCI moved in front 6-3
>Gillis continued to shine putting away a kill, 10-7
>The Beach would catch the Anteaters with a block, 12-12
>A Beach service error and two Sani kills gave UCI some room, 17-14
>LBSU would close to one on three occasions but UCI held strong, using a kill by Henno and a block by Gillis and Campbell, 22-19
>A kill by Sani sent the match to a fifth set, 25-22

FIFTH SET
>Two LBSU errors helped the Anteaters to a 2-0 advantage
>A 5-1 run by Long Beach State gave the Beach a 6-4 lead
>Long Beach led 10-9 before Dahm had a kill and back-to-back block assists, 12-10
>The teams would trade points until a Beach attack went wide and Gillis put away the match-winner, 15-12

NOTES
>It is UCI first win since a 3-1 victory in Irvine on April 3, 2015.
>Henno has 11 aces over the last two matches
>UCI as beaten two Top 5 teams this season

 UP NEXT
The teams will meet again tomorrow in Long Beach for a 7:00 p.m. match at the Walter Pyramid.