IRVINE, Calif. – Junior Cole Gillis hit a career-high .800 to lead No. 7 UC Irvine to a sweep of Concordia (25-17, 25-20, 25-7) across town at the CU Arena.

Gillis logged a season-high 16 kills on 20 attempts without an error, the highest percentage in the nation this season. NCAA stats require a 3.3 attacks per set average to be ranked. He didn't miss a shot in the first set (7-0-7) and entered the last set, hitting .929 (13-0-14). The opposite also added two digs and two block assists.

UCI hit a scorching .592 (47-5-71), also the top mark in the country this season.

The Anteaters are 6-0 to begin the season, the best start since UCI went 9-0 in 2007.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Junior outside hitter Francesco Sani hit .588 (11-1-17) with four digs and an ace
>Freshman middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev posted a career-best 10 kills, hitting .692 (10-1-13). He added two block assists.
>Libero Cole Power had a match-high 11 digs.
>Setter Joe Karlous had 25 set assists, two aces, eight digs and two block assists
>The Golden Eagles (3-3) were led by Max McCullough's seven kills

FIRST SET
>Concordia started with the first two points, putting away a pair of kills
>Cole Gillis put away a kill on a broken play to knot the score at 5-5
>A kill by Maxim Grigoriev from the middle gave UCI its first lead of the set, 9-8
>UCI scored four in a row on kills by Francesco Sani, Gillis and Grigoriev, 12-9
>A kill by Gillis was followed by three from William D'Arcy to extended the score to 18-12
>Doug Dahm assisted on back-to-back blocks to put UCI at set point, 24-17
>Gillis puts away his seventh kill off the block to give UCI the set, 25-17
>The Anteaters came out blazing with a .654 clip (19-2-26) in the first set

SECOND SET
>Joe Karlous placed a back set perfectly for Sani to register the kill, 5-4
>An ace gave CUI a 9-6 lead
>A kill by Gillis and a block by Gillis and Grigoriev stretched the lead to 18-16
>Back-to-back blocks, both assisted by D. Dahm made it 23-19
>Each team would have a service error before a block by Grigoriev and Karlous ended the set, 25-20
>The Anteaters had four blocks in the set

THIRD SET
>Three Concordia attack errors plus an ace by Karlous and kills by Sani, Grigoriev and Gillis started the set, 7-0
>Sani had a kill and an ace in a 4-0 run, 19-4
>Another ace by Karlous capped a 3-0 run, 23-6
>Grigoriev had the match-winner, 25-7
 
NOTES
>Gillis has hit over .500 four times this year and .700 twice
>Sani has recorded an ace in four of six matches this season
>D. Dahm has recorded four block assists in each of the last three matches

UP NEXT
No. 7 UCI will host No. 13 BYU twice next week. The Anteaters and Cougars tangle on Wednesday (Jan. 25) and Friday (Jan. 27). Both matches begin at 7:00 p.m. Buy Tickets