PRESS CONFERENCE

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Fifth-seeded UC Irvine upset fourth-seed UC San Diego 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 30-28) in the quarterfinals of the OUTRIGGER Big West Men's Volleyball Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands at SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Anteaters (11-15) hit a season-high .405 (44-10-84) and were led by opposite Francesco Sani who hit .581 on 19 kills and just one error in 31 swings. He also had six digs and two block assists.

Providing a spark off the bench were Conner Dahm and Alexandre Nsakanda who each made an impact in the two sets they played. Dahm, typically a serving specialist, stepped in to play middle when Aiden Wolf-Nielsen went out with an injury, and recorded a kill, a block and two aces. Nsakanda had a kill, ace and block in the victory.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID
"One thing this team hasn't been short on is belief and you can't write a better story than the journey we have been on this year with this team. Someone asked who was our third middle and we don't really have a third middle so when Aiden (Wolf-Nielsen) went out we all took a deep breath and said 'Well this is how this year is going and lets lean into it and put a guy out there with a ton of passion and see what happens'."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitters Cole Gillis and Hilir Henno each added nine kills with Gillis popping up six digs and Henno five
>Wolf-Nielsen had three block assists to go with three kills in two sets
>Setter Brian Garcia totaled 36 set assists and matched Wolf-Nielsen with a team-high three block assists
>Libero Cole Power had a match-high seven digs
>The Anteaters out-blocked UCSD 8.0-3.5
>Ninth-ranked UC San Diego (13-11) was led by Kyle McCauley's 13 kills and three aces

FIRST SET
>UCSD would open a 12-9 lead and force a UCI timeout. Out of the break, Wolf-Nielsen would have a kill and back-to-back blocks, 12-12
>UCI would score four straight, including a Triton service error, a kill by Francesco Sani, an ace by Alexandre Nsakanda and a kill by Cole Gillis, 19-18
>The Tritons would knot the score at 21-21
>Wolf-Nielsen had a kill followed by a block with Hilir Henno to give UCI set point, 24-22
>Following a UCSD kill, Henno knocked it off the block for the 25-23 win

SECOND SET
>Gillis, Henno and Sani knocked down kills and put UCI up 10-7
>A kill by Sani and solo block by Doug Dahm increased the advantage to 12-8
>A kill by Henno and a Triton attack error forced a UCSD timeout, 17-11
>Three in a row by the Tritons narrowed the margin to 22-18
>A pair of Sani kills gave UCI the set 25-20
>The Anteaters hit .538 (16-2-26) in the set

THIRD SET
>UCSD would be the first to make a move opening a 12-9 lead
>The Tritons would lead 15-11 at the media timeout
>A pair of kills by Henno got UCI within 18-19
>A block by Brian Garcia and Conner Dahm was followed by another UCSD attack error and a kill by C. Dahm from Henno to go in front 21-20
>C. Dahm would have an ace for match point 24-23
>UCSD would hold off two match points and hold set point on an ace, 26-25
>Teams would match points until a kill by Sani was followed by a triple block by Nsakanda, Sani and Henno for the match, 30-28

NOTES
>UCI upsets its fourth Top 10 opponent this season
>This is the third time UCI has beaten UCSD in a Big West Championship first round, all 3-0 sweeps
>UCI advances to the semifinals for the first time since 2019
>Each team had four aces

UP NEXT
>UCI will take on top-seeded Long Beach State in the first semifinal Friday (Apr. 22) at 7:30 p.m. PT