DALLAS, Texas – UC Irvine had 14.5 blocks in a 3-0 sweep of DePaul (25-22, 25-13, 25-18) in the final match of the SMU Doubletree Invitational held in Moody Coliseum Saturday.

The Anteater middle blockers were dominate with junior Onye Ofoegbu leading the squad with a season and match-high 17 kills and nine block assists. She hit .519, committing three errors on 27 swings. Junior Kiani Stanton posted a career-high nine kills, hitting .615 with just one error on 13 attempts. She added five total blocks (1 solo, 4 assisted).

Opposite Ellen Veargason was also a force at the net with career-high seven block assists.

UCI, who picks up the first win of the season (1-2), held the Blue Demons (0-3) to a .086 (30-21-105) hitting percentage, while the Anteaters had a season-best .321 performance (47-13-106).

HEAD COACH ASHLIE HAIN SAID:
"We learned a lot about ourselves yesterday. It wasn't the way we wanted to start the season, but I'm proud of our response today. DePaul is a good well coached team and we played UCI volleyball today. I'm looking to build on this selfless style of play we exhibited today."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Sophomore Marianna Bertolone was a major part of the offense with a season-best 11 kills to go with seven digs and three block assists
>Junior Joy Umeh recorded eight kills and had three block assists
>Libero Campbell Jensen scooped 18 digs and was perfect on 17 receptions
>Setter Kelly Negron had 23 set assists and seven digs, while setter Indy DeSmet recorded 19 assists and five digs
>DePaul was paced by Jill Pressly and Hanna Karl with seven kills apiece

FIRST SET
>UCI got out to an early 4-2 lead on a kill by Kiani Stanton and a block by Onye Ofoegbu and Joy Umeh
>A kill by Ofoegbu and an ace by Emma Spindt extended the margin to 7-4, but DePaul quickly tied the set at 7-7 with the help of two Anteater errors
>A 4-1 spurt by the Blue Demons moved DePaul in front 13-10
>UCI rallied with a 5-1 run, using a pair of blocks both assisted by Ellen Veargason to go ahead 17-16
>Kills by Stanton and Umeh and a bat set by the Blue Demons  gave the Anteaters some separation, 22-20
>Kills by Ofoegby and Marianna Bertolone ended the set for UCI, 25-22

SECOND SET
>UCI exploded on a 9-1 run that included three block assists and three kills by Ofoegbu, 10-2
>Four more points in a row were dominated by the middle, this time Kiani Stanton had a kill and two blocks, 14-4
>The Anteaters would roll to a 25-13 victory on the strength of 5 total blocks and a .429 (15-3-28) hitting percentage. DePaul hit .000 (8-8-29)

THIRD SET
>Kills by Umeh and Bertolone and a block by Umeh and Stanton got the Anteaters out to an early 3-0 advantage
>DePaul responded scoring six of the next seven points to go ahead, 6-4
>Trailing 6-7, the block once again went to work with three rejections and forcing three other attack errors to set UCI back in the right direction, 12-7. Veargason joined Ofoegbu in two of her three blocks
>Two kills by Ofoegbu was followed immediately by another from Bertolone to make the score, 15-8
>A pair of kills by Umeh started a 3-0 spurt to make it 21-13 and UCI would close out the set and match on an Ofoegbu kill 25-18

NOTES
>UCI has recorded 3.64 blocks per set over the last two matches
>It is the most blocks by the Anteaters since they had 15.5 versus UC San Diego last year on Nov. 9
>Jensen has posted double-figures in all three of her first Anteater matches

UP NEXT
UCI will host the adidas/UCI Invitational Friday and Saturday (Sept. 2-3) at the Bren Events Center. The Invitational will start with UCI playing Holy Cross at 10:00 a.m. Sacred Heart and Dartmouth will meet at 2:00 p.m. before the Anteaters will take on Sacred Heart at 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, UCI will face Dartmouth at 7:00 p.m.