IRVINE, Calif. – No. 6 UC Irvine recorded the seventh sweep of the season to open the Big West schedule, beating UC San Diego, 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-16) at the Bren Events Center Friday night.

The Anteaters (11-6, 1-0) hit .397 to UCSD's .158 and had a slight edge in blocks (7.5-6) and digs (26-21). Both teams had three aces.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID
"I really appreciated the maturity of how we regulated our game. It can be frustrating sometimes to not feel like we are playing at our absolutely peak performance level, but was impressed by our ability to keep getting what needed to be done to stay in control of that match."

"It was nice to give guys an opportunity, like Stefan Vartigov. He is a freshman and working hard and seeing the emotional energy when he got in the match, it was so clear, everyone wanted to see him succeed and I don't think that is normal for teams, but its normal for us."   

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Francesco Sani led all players with 12 kills, hitting ,476 (12-2-21). He also had four digs, two block assists and an ace
>Outside hitter Hilir Henno posted nine kills and six digs
>Junior Cole Gillis hit .500 (7-1-12) and fired two aces
>Middle blockers Connor Campbell and Maxim Grigoriev each had five kills with Grigoriev totaling a team-best five blocks
>Setter Joe Karlous totaled 34 set assists, four block assists and a match-high seven digs
>Ryan Ka topped the Tritons with 10 kills   

FIRST SET
>With just two kills on the stat sheet, UCI was able to lead 9-4
>The Anteaters were in control the entire set and would use a kill by Stefan Vartigov to end the set, 25-17

SECOND SET
>UCSD had a pair of kills by Ryan Ka followed by an ace to take a 6-2 lead
>The Anteaters scored five in a row, including two blocks, 8-7
>The teams remained close with the Tritons opening a 22-20 lead late
>UCI would score five of the final six points, including a block by Francesco Sani and Maxim Grigoriev to capture the 25-23 victory

THIRD SET
>Three straight Triton blocks started the third set
>UCI rebounded with four in a row on two kills by Sani and a block by Sani and Connor Campbell, 4-3
>UCI broke open the set with a 5-0 run which included kills by Hilir Henno, Max Grigoriev, Sani and Cole Gillis, 11-6
>A kill by Vartigov extended the margin to 20-13
>A block by Campbell and Henno ended the match, 25-16

UP NEXT
The teams will meet again tomorrow in La Jolla with a 7:00 p.m. first serve from the LionTree Arena.