PROVO, Utah – No. 8 UC Irvine had 11 aces in a 3-0 win (36-34, 25-15, 25-19) over McKendree at Smith Fieldhouse on the campus of BYU.

The Anteaters, who improve to 2-0 on the season, had aces by five players led by Hilir Henno with four. Francesco Sani had three, while Maxim Grigoriev had two and Cole Gillis and Connor Campbell add one each.

Henno has totaled nine aces over seven sets this season.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID:
"Like last night, we improved objectively, statistically as the night went on. Subjectively, it felt composed.

Serving here is tough. The restrictions on space and the altitude are real. Considering that, I thought we played well enough.

As always, we are grateful to the hosts (BYU). Such a great place to play."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Henno continued his impressive 2023 campaign with 13 kills, hitting .500 (13-1-24). He also added a team-high eight digs and two total blocks to go with his team-leading aces
>Gillis hit .562 from the outside with 11 kills
>Sani added 10 kills
>Freshman William D'Arcy recorded his first two career kills and a block assist
>Setter Joe Karlous tallied 30 set assists and four digs
>McKendree was led by Kevin Schuele's 12 kills
>The Anteaters hit .395 (41-9-81) while the Bearcats hit .278
>McKendree held a slight edge in blocking 5.5-4.5

FIRST SERVE
>A kill by Hilir Henno gave UCI a 16-13 advantage and forced a McKendree timeout
>Out of the break, the Bearcats scored four unanswered to move in front 17-16
>A block by Francesco Sani and Connor Campbell and a Bearcat attack error helped UCI to a 22-20 advantage
>A McKendree service error made it 23-21 before the Bearcats rallied to tie it at 23-23
>UCI would hold set point only to watch McKendree score the next two on a UCI service error and a kill to reverse the fortunes, 25-24
>Cole Gillis would come up big, putting away two kills to fight off set points
>A kill by Henno and a block by Gillis and Grigoriev switched the advantage back to the Anteaters, 33-32
>Finally the set would end on a kill by Grigoriev and McKendree being out of rotation on the next serve, 36-34

SECOND SET
>UCI would hold a 6-3 lead then increase the margin to 11-7 on two kills by Sani followed by one from  Grigoriev
>Sani would record an ace that dribbled off the tape then blasted another right after, 16-10
>Sani continued to serve lasers keeping McKendree out of system and helping increase the lead to 18-10
>Three consecutive Bearcat errors got the Anteaters to set point, 24-15
>Henno would finish it off with an ace, 25-15

THIRD SET
>McKendree would score the first two points of the frame until two Gillis kills were followed by another Henno ace, 3-2
>A 5-1 run by the Bearcats forced a UCI timeout, 7-4
>UCI responded out of the timeout with three of their own, a kill by Sani, a McKendree attack error and an ace by Gillis
>A 4-0 spurt which included a solo block by Henno and an ace by Connor Campbell increased the Anteater lead to 12-9
>A serve by Grigoriev would find the back corner for another UCI ace, 18-12
>McKendree had to use their final timeout after William D'Arcy had a kill and San fired another ace, 21-14
>A Bearcat attack error would end the set, 25-19

NOTES
>11 aces are the most by an Anteater team since they had 12 in against Long Beach State on Mar. 10, 2022

UP NEXT
UCI will make its home debut Friday (Jan. 13) against Emmanuel at the Bren Events Center starting at 7:00 p.m.