IRVINE, Calif. – No. 5 UC Irvine handed No. 4 Hawaii a 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-21) loss at the Bren Events Center Friday.

The Anteaters hit .425 (45-8-87), the third best offensive performance of the season. Outside hitter Hilir Henno led all players with 20 kills, hitting .679 (20-1-28), the ninth time he has recorded 20 or more kills times this season. The junior totaled six digs, two block assists and an ace in the victory.

UCI out-blocked UH, 10-3. Middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev had a match-best six block assists followed by setter Brett Sheward with five which ties his career-high.

UC Irvine improves to 17-7 overall and 5-2 in the Big West, while Hawaii goes to 20-5 on the year and 3-4 in the Big West.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID
"We played pretty clean. We came in the night wanting to focus on each individual touch. In the words of (Associate Athletic Director) John Abdou as he was talking to our team 'Let's focus on performance and not winning and let winning be the by product and put ourselves in the best position to win.'"

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Grigoriev also had five digs and was good offensively, hitting .455 (6-1-11)
>Sheward totaled 34 set assists and four digs
>Outside hitter Nolan Flexen had nine kills, four digs and two block assists
>Opposite William D'Arcy had six kills and two block assists
>Hawaii hit .204 (37-18-93) and was led by Alaka'I Todd's 12 kills  

FIRST SET
>Three consecutive kills by Hilir Henno gave UCI a 6-3 lead
>Back-to-back kills by Connor Campbell and Maxim Grigoriev extended the margin to 12-7
>Three in a row by Hawaii, a UCI service error and two Keoni Thiim kills, inched the Rainbow Warriors to 14-12
>Leading 15-13, the Anteaters used kills by William D'Arcy and Grigoriev, 17-13
>Henno recorded his 174^th career ace to force a UH timeout, 23-18
>D'Arcy laid the ball softly down the line for set point
>Hawaii scored twice before Henno flew out of the back row for the set winner, 25-20
>Both teams were hot offensively. UCI hit .588 (22-2-34), while Hawaii did not commit a hitting error (14-0-31)

SECOND SET
>A service and attack error by Hawaii was followed by a kill by Campbell in the middle, 5-3
>A kill by Thiim and two Anteater attack errors pushed Hawaii in front 8-7
>A Warrior serve in the net and two attacks that sailed long helped UCI to a 14-11 lead
>A block by Nolan Flexen and Grigoriev and another UH attack error forced a Hawaii timeout, 18-14
>Grigoriev was in on three more blocks this time with Brett Sheward, 22-15
>The Anteaters would win 25-19, powered by six blocks in the set, five that included Grigoriev

THIRD SET
>UCI jumped out to an early 3-1 lead on a Henno kill and two UH errors
>Henno drilled a ball down the line then Campbell landed a kill from the middle to increase the gap to 5-2
>Sheward banged a kill off the defender to cap a 3-0 run, 9-4
>Consecutive kills by Henno and a triple block by Flexen, Campbell and D'Arcy made it 17-10
>A 5-1 run by Hawaii, including two Thiim aces narrowed the lead to 21-19
>After a UCI timeout, Henno crushed a ball cross court then tapped the next one off the block, 23-19
>Henno would record the match winner, 25-21

NOTES
>UCI snapped a 15-match losing streak against Hawaii dating back to 2018 and log their first win at home since 2015 when they had 3-0 sweep on Jan. 28
>The Anteaters have out-blocked opponents 12 times this season
>Henno is now nine aces away from Carson Clark's UCI career record of 183

UP NEXT
The two teams meet again tomorrow at 6:00 p.m at the Bren Center.