UC Irvine Press Conference 

 
IRVINE, Calif. – No. 5 UC Irvine swept CSUN in the first round of the 2023 OUTRIGGER Big West Men's Volleyball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands at the Bren Center Thursday evening.

With the win, the Anteaters (17-10) advance to a semifinal match against No. 4 Long Beach State at 7:30 p.m. Friday (Apr. 21).

For sixth time this season, UCi recorded a .400 or better hitting percentage with an impressive .405 (41-11-74) clip. The Anteaters also out-aced CSUN 8-3.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Hilir Henno led all players with 12 kills and four aces
>Opposite Francesco Sani totaled nine kills, three aces and two block assists
>Connor Campbell was unstoppable in the middle, hitting .727 (8-0-11). He also had two block assists
>Outside hitter Akhil Tangutur made his second start of the season and added four kills and tied the team-high with six digs
>Freshman William D'Arcy was impressive off the bench with five kills on eight swings
>CSUN (12-16) was led by Luke Krzmarzick with eight kills and Kyle Hobus with seven

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAYS
"Grateful for the composure of the guys coming off the bench. Akhil filled in seamlessly and for Will D'Arcy and Dylan (Zhai) to come off the bench and run a modified 6-2 was not something new for them but haven't trained in a while and they stepped in, kept it simple and played the volleyball they've been  playing every day in practice. All around good contributions from everyone."

FIRST SET
>UCI hit .714 (5-0-7) and jumped out to an early 6-1 lead. Connor Campbell and Hilir Henno each recorded two kills in the run
>A pair of kills by Francesco Sani extended the lead to 13-7
>A kill and ace by Henno made it 18-12
>UCI led 20-14 on a kill by William D'Arcy before CSUN rallied with three straight kills, 20-17
>A blast from Henno was followed by the set winner by Akhil Tangutur, 25-21

SECOND SET
>A block by Sani and Maxim Grigoriev opened the second frame
>UCI would trail 7-9 before a Matador service error and a kill from Campbell in the middle tied the score at 9-9
>Two kills by Sani and one by Henno gave UCI some separation, 18-15
>The Matadors would close to 23-22, but UCI answered with a kill by Tangutur and a CSUN attack error to end the set, 25-22

THIRD SET
>CSUN dominated the set early, 8-3 on six UCI errors
>The Matadors continued to lead 11-7 before the Anteaters went on a 5-1 run to tie the set at 12-12. Tangutur and D'Arcy each had a kill and a block assist in the spurt
>Henno stepped to the service line and UCI scored seven in a row, two on aces, 21-13
>A CSUN service error ended the set and match, 25-18
 
NOTES
>It's the fifth straight win against the Matadors
>Henno improved his school record ace total to 84, while Sani now has 44 on the year and moved into a tie with Zack La Cavera (2015) for 11th on the UCI season list
>UCI has advanced to the semifinals of four of the five Big West Championships
>UCI snapped a four match losing streak