Irvine, Calif. – Hilir Henno and Maxim Grigoriev each posted career-highs in No. 7 UC Irvine's 3-1 victory over No. 15 USC (19-25, 25-22, 30-28, 27-25) at the Bren Events Center Wednesday.

Henno pounded a career-best 29 kills, hitting 568 (29-4-44). His 29 kills are second most in the Big West and third in the country this season. He also tied Brett Sheward for the team-high in digs with seven.

Grigoriev recorded his personal-best 17 kills to go with six digs, two aces and three block assists.

UCI improves to 6-3 overall, while USC goes to 7-4.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID
"Hilir has gone to another level with his game this year. The skillset has been there, but he has become a more mature player and a leader on the court and a captain of our team.He is out there playing like a man."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Setter Brett Sheward guided UCI to a .391 hitting percentage, the second highest of the season for the Anteaters. He totaled a career-high 56 set assists to go with seven digs and three block assists
>Outside hitter Akhil Tangutur tallied six kills, three digs and an ace
>Middle blocker Conner Dahm hit .625 on five kills without an error in eight attempts
>Middle blocker Connor Campbell tied his season-high with seven block assists and had a season-best two aces
>Outside hitter Nolan Flexen hit .417 with six kills
>USC out-hit UCI .422-.391, while out-digging (40-29) and out-blocking the Anteaters (11.5-8.5). UCI held a 7-4 advantage in aces
>USC was led by Jack Deuchar's 21 kills

FIRST SET
>A kill and an ace by Maxim Grigoriev pushed UCI out to a 4-2 lead
>A 5-2 run, three on UCI errors, gave the Trojans the 9-7 advantage
>A kill by Nolan Flexen and a Trojan error tied it at 12-12 only to watch USC score the next two to start a 5-1 run to pull away 17-13
>A USC kill and consecutive blocks moved the margin to 20-15
>Two kills by Hilir Henno and one by Grigoriev tried to rally the Anteaters, 18-21
>Once again the Trojans answered with the next three, 24-18
> USC would win the set, 25-19 hitting .700 (15-1-20)

SECOND SET
>A 4-0 spurt which was started by a Flexen kill and followed by three Trojans attack errors helped UCI to a 13-10 lead
>Back-to-back kills by Henno increased the Anteaters lead to 17-14
>A kill by Conner Dahm was followed by a block by Connor Campbell and Grigoriev. USC timeout, 20-16
>USC made it interesting scoring two straight to close to 23-22 before a kill by Henno and a solo block by Dahm ended it 25-22
>Henno had eight kills and UCI rejected 4.5 blocks in the set

THIRD SET
>A Dahm kill and ace started a 4-0 run by UCI that was capped by a Grigoriev and Campbell block, 5-1
>Henno would set the ball over on the reception for a kill, 9-4
>Kills by Dahm and Grigoriev gave UCI a 19-14 advantage
>USC closed to 20-18 then kills by Henno, Akhil Tangutur, Campbell and Grigoriev put the Anteaters at set point, 24-18
>USC would peel-off seven straight, five on UCI errors, to give the Trojans set point, 25-24
>A kill by Henno and another by William D'Arcy on an overpass flipped the script, 26-25
>The Trojans would use a kill and a UCI attack error to move back in front 27-26
>A kill by Grigoriev was followed by the Trojans being out of rotation on the serve to move the momentum back on the Anteater side, 28-27
>UCI had a service error before a Trojan service error and an ace by Campbell ended the set, 30-28
>Henno hit .700 (7-0-10)

FOURTH SET
>A USC service and attack error bookended an ace by Grigoriev to give UCI the slight 19-17 lead which would quickly be erased by two Trojan kills, 19-19
>The teams would go point for point until a kill by Tangutur and another by Henno ended the match, 27-25

NOTES
>UCI has won two in a row against the Trojans
>Henno did not record an ace for the first time this season

UP NEXT
The two teams will meet again Saturday (Feb. 10) at the Galen Center. First serve is 7:00 p.m.