IRVINE, Calif. – No. 5 UC Irvine remained undefeated in the Big West with a 3-0 victory over CSUN (25-19, 25-21, 25-19) at the Bren Events Center Friday.

The Anteaters go to 5-0 in Big West action and 15-6 overall.

UCI, who ranks fourth in the country in aces, once again dominated from the service line, 9-0, including six from the nation's leader Hilir Henno.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Opposite Francesco Sani led UCI with 11 kills, two aces, four digs and two block assists
>Henno had 10 kills to go with his six aces
>Middle blocker Connor Campbell had a match-high six block assists as UCI out-blocked CSUN 9-7
>Outside hitter Cole Gillis totaled nine kills and an ace
>Setter Joe Karlous posted 29 set assists, a team-high seven digs and two block assists
>Freshman middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev hit .800 (4-0-5) with three block assists
>CSUN (12-10, 1-4) was led by Lorenzo Bertozzi with 10 kills followed by Kyle Hobus and Griffin Walters with nine each

FIRST SET
>Back-to-back kills by Hilir Henno and Francesco Sani were followed by an ace from Henno to give UCI a 4-1 start
>Maxim Grigoriev assisted in consecutive blocks to increase the advantage to 9-5
>Following a CSUN kill, UCI used  kill by Henno and a block by Joe Karlous and Connor Campbell, 11-6
>Henno would crush a ball to get to 20-13
>Another kill and ace by Henno pushed UCI to set point, 24-15
>The Matadors would benefit from three UCI errors plus a kill before Sani put away the winner on the rightside, 24-19

SECOND SET
>CSUN would hold an 8-7 lead before UCI went on a 4-0 run which included kills by Henno and Sani and two blocks, both assisted by Connor Campbell, forcing a Matador timeout, 11-8
>CSUN answered with the next three to even the set, 11-11
>Two Matador errors and a Cole Gillis kill put UCI back in control, 15-12
>Tied at 20 all, the Anteaters had kills by Gillis, Grogoriev and Sani to create some cushion, 23-20
>A kill by Grigoriev in the middle was followed by a block by Dylan Zhai and Grigoriev for the 25-21 win  

THIRD SET
>A pair of Henno kills and a block by Henno and Campbell gave UCI the 11-7 lead
>Henno continued to dominate with a kill and two more aces, 16-10
>CSUN rallied with three straight to close within 20-18
>UCI would close out the match with the final four points, two on aces by Henno, including the set winner, 25-19

NOTES
>The Anteaters notched their 10^th sweep of the season
>Henno has recorded five or more aces seven times in 2023
>UCI went 6-1 in the month of March

UP NEXT
The teams will meet again tomorrow in Northridge for a 7:00 p.m. match