IRVINE, Calif. – No. 6 UC Irvine hit a season-high .412 (37-9-68) on the way to a 3-0 sweep (25-17, 25-19, 25-16) of McKendree at Crawford Hall Wednesday evening.

Outside hitter Hilir Henno led UCI with 11 kills followed by sophomore Maxim Grigoriev who tied his career-high with 10 kills to go with three block assists.

The Anteaters held McKendree to a .062 hitting percentage and out-blocked the Bearcats 8.5 to 2.5.

COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID:
"I respect the McKendree volleyball program and always expect them to play tough, especially at the end of the year.

Our guys didn't take any chances tonight. I felt like we were locked in from the start and kept the pressure on."

INSIDE THE NUMEBRS
>Outside hitter Nolan Flexen added eight kills, five digs, four block assists and an ace
>Connor Campbell hit .714 on five kills in seven attempts and had a team and season-high six block assists
>Setter Brett Sheward totaled 29 set assists, two aces, two block assists and a team-high six digs
>McKendree was led by Bryce Wetjen and Kyle Wilson with six kills

FIRST SET
>The teams had four service errors apiece before UCI used kills by Nolan Flexen and Hilir Henno and an ace by Brett Sheward to move out to an 11-6 lead
>Back-to-back Bearcat errors extended the lead to 19-13
>Three McKendree points would follow, two on UCI attack errors to close the gap to 19-16
>UCI answered with kills by Henno and Flexen and a Bearcat error forcing a McKendree timeout, 22-16
>A block by Connor Campbell and Flexen ended the set 25-17
>Each team ended with eight service errors

SECOND SET
>Three consecutive blocks, two assisted by Sheward, put UCI up 5-2
>A kill by Maxim Grigoriev, a block by Grigoriev and Beck Weber and a kill by Henno gave the Anteaters an 11-6 advantage
>Kills by Flexen and Campbell made it 15-8
>McKendree would stay close with three in a row, 16-12
>UCI would score the final three points, the last two on kills by Campbell, including a blast on an overpass for the winner, 25-19
>UCI had six blocks in the set

THIRD SET
>A triple block by Flexen, Campbell and Grigoriev continued the dominance at the net, 3-2
>Three in a row for McKendree gave the Bearcats a 5-4 lead
>Three McKendree errors and a kill by Flexen after a Campbell dig put UCI in control 9-6
>Two Anteater errors and a Bearcat kill forced a UCI timeout, 15-13
>A pair of Grigoriev kills, a McKendree attack error and a kill by Henno gave UCI the 21-15 advantage
>A Bearcat service and attack error was followed by a Weber kill to end the match, 25-16

NOTES
>UCI has won three in a row and improve to 3-1. McKendree drops its season opener

UP NEXT
UCI travels to No. 9 BYU Friday (Jan. 26) for a 6:00 p.m. match from Smith Fieldhouse.