Box Score IRVINE, Calif. – No. 7 UC Irvine improved to 5-0 with a sweep of Concordia (25-21, 25-18, 25-16) at the Bren Events Center Friday.

The Anteaters had a season-high 10 blocks and held the Golden Eagles to a .029 hitting percentage (28-24-81). UCI hit .405 (38-8-74).

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Francesco Sani led all players with 16 kills, while hitting .419 (16-3-31). He also had a match-high six digs to go with three block assists and an ace
>Cole Gillis continued his hot-hand with a .588 performance (11-1-17)
>Freshman William D'Arcy posted a career-best six kills and five digs
>Middle blocker Doug Dahm had a team-high four block assists, which tied his season high
>Concordia's Gil Herold totaled a team-best nine kills

COACH KNIFFIN SAYS
"Playing Concordia always challenges us to up our defensive level because they are such a scrappy team. I was proud of our ability to generate kills against a team that is strong at the net and behind the block. Cole Gillis continues to be such a consistent, steady presence for us. He gives us such reliability on the right side."

FIRST SET
>With the score tied at 5-5, UCI went on a 5-1 run which included a kill by Cole Gillis, ace by Francesco Sani, a kill by Doug Dahm and two by William D'Arcy, 10-6
>Three UCI errors helped Concordia draw within 15-13
>The Anteaters followed with a kill by D'Arcy and a block by Maxim Grigoriev and Dylan Zhai, 17-13
>UCI took advantage of two Golden Eagle attack errors to extend the lead to 20-16
>Three consecutive Concordia kills made it interesting (20-19) until Sani stopped the streak with a kill, 21-19
>Two kills by Sani bookended an ace by Gillis then following a service error a kill by Gillis ended the set, 25-21

SECOND SET
>UCI opened the set with kills by Gillis and Sani
>A D'Arcy kill was followed by one from Gillis to move the margin to 7-4
>A 6-1 run which included two Grigoriev aces put UCI in charge, 14-7
>UCI maintained control the rest of the way and a kill by Sani would win it, 25-18

THIRD SET
>UCI would hold an 8-4 lead before CUI had three consecutive points including back-to-back blocks, 8-7
>Kills by D'Arcy and Gillis and a block by Grigoriev and D'Arcy pushed it to 16-9
>A pair of Sani kills and a block by D. Dahm and Gillis plus a CUI attack error made it 20-10
>A Brandon Marina smash in the middle got the crowd fired up, 22-12
>The Golden Eagles would hand UCI the set and match victory, 25-16

NOTES
>Sani extended his streak of double-digit kills to 20 matches
>It is the third time the Anteaters have hit over .400 this season

UP NEXT
UCI will travel to Concordia to meet the Golden Eagles in CU Arena tomorrow (Jan. 21) at 7:00 p.m.