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Long Beach State at UC Irvine 
Thursday, Oct. 19 | 7:00 PM | Bren Events Center
Live Stats   ESPN+ 

UC Irvine at UC San Diego
Saturday, Oct. 21 | 7:00 PM | LionTree Arena
Live Stats    ESPN+  
 
FIRST SERVE
UC Irvine will entertain Long Beach State Thursday (Oct. 19) at 7:00 p.m. at the Bren Events Center before traveling to UC San Diego Saturday (Oct. 21) for a 7:00 p.m. first serve at LionTree Arena.

Thursday's match is another installment of the Black & Blue Rivalry presented by Duke's and is the only regular season meeting between The Beach and the Anteaters..

STORYLINES
UCI is 6-13 overall and 4-4 in the Big West.

The Anteaters enter the week on a two-match winning streak after sweeping Cal State Bakersfield and CSUN last week.

The Anteaters had a 7-4 advantage in aces versus CSUB led by Amanda Leinbach's career-best three aces.

Against CSUN Emma Napoleon made the most of her first career start, pounding a career-best 13 kills to lead the Anteaters. She also posted a career-best three block assists and a dig.

Middle blocker Isabella Scarlett hit .750 on nine kills in 12 swings without an error.

Scarlett is fifth in the Big West in hitting percentage (.295). She had a season's best .889 mark against Cal State Fullerton (8-0-9).

Hunter Riedl leads UCI with a 2.88 kill average, which is 10^th best among Big West players. The opposite has led UCI in kills 10 times this season.

Long Beach State, who is also on a two-match winning streak, is 12-6 overall and 6-2 in the Big West.

The teams split a pair of matches last season, each winning on their own court.

Last week, The Beach swept UC Davis and UC Riverside and have won five of their last six outings.

LBSU's Zayna Meyer secured a sixth career Big West Setter of the Week award after directing the Beach to a .393 team attack percentage while averaging 10.50 assists, 2.33 digs, and 2.17 kills per set on .722 hitting last week.

Teammate Kameron Bacon nabbed defensive honors after posting up for 2.00 blocks per set while also contributing 2.50 kills.

The Tritons enter the week 11-9 on the year and 3-5 in conference play.

UCI has topped UCSD in all four previous meetings.

During UC San Diego's reclassification period to Division I, the Tritons are ineligible to win The Big West title and cannot play in the conference postseason or NCAA Championship event until the 2024-25 season.

UCSD had a three-match winning streak snapped with a 3-1 loss to UC Davis to end the week.

UCSD's Ava McInnes leads the Big West in kills with a 3.73 mark.

LBSU and UCSD top the league in aces with a 1.74 average.

The Anteaters are third in digs at 15.00 per set.
 
NAPOLEON TABBED FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Redshirt freshman Emma Napoleon was impressive in UCI's wins last week and brought home Big West Freshman of the Week honors.

She started the week tying her career-high with eight kills versus CSUB then had a match-best and new career-high 13 kills in her first career start against CSUN. The outside hitter also posted a career-best three block assists and a dig against the Matadors. For the week, Napoleon averaged 3.50 kills, 0.50 blocks, while hitting .304.

She joins Nicole Feliciano who earned the award on Sept. 4.