NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – No. 14 UC Irvine was led by opposite Francesco Sani and a solid middle attack to defeat CSUN 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 25-22) at Premier America Credit Union Arena.

Sani led UCI with 21 kills, his third 20+ kill effort in the last four matches.

Middle blockers Aiden Wolf-Nielsen and Doug Dahm had nine and eight kills, respectively. Wolf-Nielsen matched his career-high, while Dahm tied his season-best. Wolf-Nielsen also topped the Anteaters with five total blocks. The duo hit a combined .467 with just three errors between them in 30 attempts.

The Anteaters (9-13, 2-5) win their second road match of the season, hitting .364 (55-15-110), the second highest performance of the season.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Cole Gillis recorded a career-high four aces to go with 13 kills and five digs. He hit .417 on the night (13-3-24)
>Setter Brian Garcia totaled 42 set assists, a team-high seven digs and four total blocks
>CSUN's Kyle Hobus had a match-high 23 kills. The Matadors fall to 6-12 overall and 1-6 in the Big West
>UCI held a 10-3.5 advantage in blocks and a 7-2 advantage in aces

FIRST SET
> It went back-and-forth in the early going with five tie scores
> CSUN eventually pulled ahead 10-7 and stayed out front until UC Irvine knotted it up at 15-15 on a Francesco Sani kill
> The 'Eaters then took a 17-16 lead after another kill from Sani and a Conner Dahm ace
> The seesaw battle continued with UCI going up by as many as two before the Matadors came back for a 22-21 advantage
> The Anteaters responded with three-straight points as a CSUN hitting error was bookended by kills from Cole Gillis and Sani
> Gillis put away his third kill to end the set at 25-23

SECOND SET
>UCI went on a 6-2 run to take a 18-17 only to watch the Matadors score the next two
>With the score tied at 21-21, UCI scored twice, the last with the help of CSUN being out of rotation 23-21
>Kills by Doug Dahm and Sani ended the set, 25-22
>UCI was errorless in the set, hitting .517 (15-0-29)

THIRD SET
>CSUN jumped out to an early 4-0 lead
>A kill by D. Dahm was followed by two Brian Garcia blocks to tie the score at 5-5
>The Matadors would out-score UCI 5-1 to move in front 10-6
>A 6-0 spurt by UCI, three on Sani kills and three on aces by Gillis moved UCI in front 13-11
>CSUN answered with a 5-1 spurt to regain the lead 15-14
>CSUN would lead 18-15 before UCI went on a 6-1 run, 21-19. The run included three kills by Gillis  
>CSUN wouldn't go away scoring five of the last six points to win, 25-23

FOURTH SET
> A kill and block by Aiden Wolf-Nielsen plus a kill by Sani gave UCI the 12-10 advantage
>The lead was short-lived  as CSUN would score the next three, 13-12
>A solo block and kill by Sani get UCI to the media timeout leading 15-13
>Following a CSUN timeout, a block by Wolf-Nielsen and Akhil Tangutur made it 16-13
>A block by Wolf-Nielsen and Sani forced a CSUN timeout, 22-19
>The Matadors would close within 22-29, but UCI used a pair of kills by Sani and a final one by Tangutur to close the set 25-22 and the match, 3-1

NOTES
>Sani has five matches with 20+ kills this season and has 10 consecutive matches with double-figure kills
>Conner Dahm logged his first career ace

UP NEXT
UCI will face the Matadors tomorrow (Apr. 9) in the Bren Events Center on the new Court 21. A pre-match ceremony will take place prior to the match.