Box Score PROVO, UT – No. 7 UC Irvine won the serving battle and had several impressive performances in a 3-1 victory over No. 8 BYU (22-25, 27-25, 25-18, 25-20) at Smith Fieldhouse.

The Anteaters had nine aces to BYU's two, led by Conner Dahm's career-best four aces. Dahm, who started in the middle, also added a career-best five kills, three digs and two block assists.

Junior Hilir Henno lead all players with a season-high 20 kills, hitting .500 (20-1-38). The outside hitter totaled an ace and six digs.

Opposite Maxim Grigoriev posted a career-high 16 kills and 10 digs with four total blocks (1 solo, 3 assisted).

Setter Brett Sheward orchestrated a season-high 60 team kills (60-23-127). He had 48 set assists and five digs.

Libero Cole Power had a season-high 10 digs matching Grigoriev for the match-best.

UCI improves to 4-1 overall and snaps BYU's 18-match home winning streak that dated back to 2022. That was the second longest streak in BYU history. UCI also snapped their longest streak (36) back in 2015. The Cougars are 7-2 overall.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Nolan Flexen recorded 12 kills, three aces, five digs and three total blocks
>Connor Campbell hit .500 with seven kills (7-1-12) and had three block assists
>BYU was led by Trent Moser with 15 kills
>The Cougars held an 11-7 advantage in blocks

FIRST SET
>BYU started with the first three points
>A kill by Maxim Grigoriev closed the gap to 6-8
>UCI strung four in a row on a kill by Grigoriev, two blocks and an ace by Conner Dahm, 10-12
>Kills by Nolan Flexen, Hilir Henno and Grigoriev pulled the Anteaters to 14-15
>An ace by Connor Campbell knotted the score at 16-16
>A dig by Power led to a Grigoriev kill that was followed by a kill by Henno and a solo block by Grigoriev, 20-17
>The Cougars would out-score UCI 8-2 to end the set, 25-22

SECOND SET
>A pair of kills and a solo block helped BYU out to a 5-2 lead
>A kill by Campbell and an ace by Flexen got the Anteaters back into the set 5-6
>A Flexen kill tied the set at 9s
>Back-to-back kills by Henno put UCI up 15-14 at the media timeout
>A UCI attack error and two kills by BYU moved the Cougars in front 18-16
>Henno pounded three straight kills to put UCI in front 22-21
>A big dig by Power led to Flexen going off the fingertips for a kill followed by a BYU attack that sailed wide to give UCI a 27-25 victory
>UCI hit .485 920-4-33) led by Henno logging nine kills on 11 swings in the set. The Cougars drop the set hitting .545 (13-1-22)

THIRD SET
>Henno started the set with an ace
>A pair of kills and a pair of blocks followed for BYU, 4-1
>Dahm placed back-to-back aces to tie it at 4-4
>A great up by Grigoriev popped it up to Sheward who dished to Henno who hit it off the triple block, 8-6
>A kill and block assist by Grigoriev plus a Cougar attack error led to a BYU timeout, 12-9
>Kills by Dahm and Flexen extended the lead to 14-10 and another by Flexen made it 17-12
>Campbell dented the floor in the middle (20-14) then Flexen flew out of the backrow for a kill, 22-15
>Henno rolled it just across the net before Flexen put away the set winner, 25-18

FOURTH SET
>Two kills by Dahm kicked off the set, 2-0
>A kill from the backrow by Henno was followed by two Flexen aces, 8-5
>BYU's ninth block would tie the set at 9-9
>Two BYU errors, a Henno kill on the overpass and a block by Dahm and Grigoriev force a BYU timeout, 13-9
>A UCI service error, Cougar ace and block close the gap, 14-13
>The Anteaters answered with a BYU service error and a block by Flexen and Campbell, 16-13
>Henno had a righthanded kill around the block down the line, 21-16
>BYU wouldn't go away scoring three straight, 21-19
>Henno would put away the next two then Grigoiev hammered a kill from the rightside
>Following a BYU kill, Henno ended the match with a kill, 25-20

NOTES
>The Anteaters win their fourth straight match
>It's the second time this season the Anteaters have dropped the first set and comeback to win the next three
>UCI loses the blocking battle for the first time this season

UP NEXT
The two teams tangle again tomorrow (Jan. 27) at 6:00 p.m. PT from Smith Fieldhouse.