LOS ANGELES, Calif. – No. 7 UC Irvine won the first set only to watch No. 15 USC take the next three at the Galen Center Saturday evening.

UCI (6-4) dominated the first set 25-12 then could not close out the Trojans in the next two sets (22-25, 23-25) before USC (8-4) ended the night with a 25-14 victory.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Junior Hilir Henno led UCI with 16 kills and a team-best seven digs. He had 19 points, matching Connor Campbell  for the team-high in blocks with four total blocks (2 solo)
>Sophomore Maxim Grigoriev added 13 kills, six digs and three total blocks
>Campbell hit .583 on seven kills without an error in 12 swings
>Setter Brett Sheward totaled 39 set assists, six digs and three blocks
>William D'Arcy made his first start and had a season-best six kills, five digs and three block assists
>Middle blocker Conner Dahm recorded six kills, four digs and two blocks
>USC's Daniel Klein had a match-best 17 kills
>The teams were closely matched statistically. Both teams had 13 blocks, while USC held the slight advantage in hitting percentage (.265-.250) and aces (3-2). UCI had 39 digs to USC's 38

FIRST SET
>Five in a row by UCI, including two blocks put the Anteaters out to a 7-2 lead
>An ace by Maxim Grigoriev made it 9-4 and two Grigoriev kills extended UCI's lead to 16-9
>UCI scored the final four points, the last a blast by William D'Arcy and won 25-12
>UCI hit .357 to USC's .000

SECOND SET
>A kill by Conner Dahm, two kills by Grigoriev and a bock by Grigoriev and Connor Campbell pushed the Anteaters out to a 5-2 advantage
>A long rally was ended by a two-handed kill by Hilir Henno (8-5) before USC had four straight kills, three by Dillon Klein to move USC in front 9-8
>A Trojan kill and ace extended the USC advantage to 15-12
>A Brett Sheward two handed dump and a triple block by D'Arcy, Henno and Beck Weber closed the margin to 16-17
>USC would lead 20-17 before the Anteaters had a kill by Grigoriev and two attack errors to knot the score at 20-20
>USC would out-score UCI 5-2 to close out the set 25-22

THIRD SET
>USC would lead 8-5 before UCI came alive on a kill and two blocks, one a solo by Henno and a kill by Dahm to move in front 9-8
>A kill by Henno and another block this time by Dahm and D'Arcy helped UCI to a 11-9 lead
>A kill by D'Arcy and a Grigoriev solo block sent UCI to the media timeout with the 15-12 advantage  
>Out of the break, Sheward had a solo block and USC had an attack error to increase the gap to 17-12
>Four in a row by USC got the Trojans back in it, 17-16
>USC would catch UCI at 19-19
>Henno would pop up a ball off his shoe then hammer a kill, 20-19
>UCI would lead 23-21 only to watch the Trojans score the final four points for a 25-23 win

FOURTH SET
>USC jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead
>A kill and block assist by Campbell helped UCI inch to 5-7
>A pair of kills and an Anteater attack error helped the Trojan move the advantage back to 11-6
>USC went on an 8-1 run to break open the set 16-7
>The Trojans would roll to a 25-14 win as UCI hit .086 (11-8-35)

NOTES
>The loss snaps a two-match winning streak against the Trojans
>Henno has double-digit kills in every match this season

UP NEXT
UCI heads to Stanford for a pair of matches, beginning on Friday (Feb. 16) at 7:00 p.m.