ALBUQUERQUE, NM -- A trio of Anteaters had double-figure kills in UC Irvine's 3-1 season opening victory over North Dakota at the Lobo Invitational at the Johnson Center.

After dropping the first set 19-25, UCI fought back to win the next three all by the score of 25-19.

Graduate students paced the Anteaters with Hunter Riedl topping the squad with 17 kills, two aces and three block assists followed by Katie Smith with 13 kills, seven digs and four block assists in her debut. Middle blocker Ella Gardiner posted a career-high seven total blocks to go with 12 kills.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>In her first match as an Anteater, Jessica Bates led the team in digs with nine, while adding 18 set assists, three kills, two aces and a solo block
>Setter Nicole Feliciano totaled 23 set assists, four kills, eight digs and a block assist
>Middle blocker Ofure Iselen had three kills and four total blocks (2 solo)
>UCI held a 6-4 advantage in aces and out-hit North Dakota .191 to .098
>Each team had 12 blocks
>Vanessa Washington and Cala Cooper each had 11 kills for the Fighting Hawks

FIRST SET
>Hunter Riedl carried the Anteaters to start the match with the first three kills, 4-3
>Three consecutive UCI hitting errors put North Dakota in front 6-4
>The Anteaters answered with four of their own, including an ace by Riedl, to flip the script 8-6
>A kill by Ella Gardiner was followed by two Hawk attack errors to move UCI's lead to 11-8
>Four consecutive points by North Dakota gave the Fighting Hawks a 15-13 advantage
>A 4-1 spurt by UCI, two kills by Katie Smith and a solo block by Ofure Iselen, helped the Anteaters to a 17-16 lead only to watch the Fighting Hawks close out the set on a 9-2 run to win 25-19
>Both offenses were slow to start with UCI hitting -0.024 and UND at .094.

SECOND SET
>Kills by Riedl and Gardiner and two UND errors helped UCI  to a 5-2 lead
>Iselen did it on offense and defense recording a block assist and a kill to give UCI an 11-8 advantage
>Gardiner had a block assist followed by a kill on overpass to make it 14-10
>Another block, this time by Iselen and Smith, extended the margin to 19-13
>Four consecutive kills by the Fighting Hawks closed the gap, 21-19 before UCI ended the set with the final four points, the last three on kills by Gardiner and Riedl and an ace by Jessica Bates, 25-19
>UCI block came alive with four stuffs

THIRD SET
>A solo block and kill by Gardiner was followed by a Smith ace and a Riedl kill as UCI raced out to a 5-2 lead
>UCI out-scored North Dakota 6-1 on the strength of three kills and a block assist by Smith, 14-8
>UND made a run with three in a row out of the media timeout, 15-12
>Amanda Leinbach fired an ace to put UCI up 20-16 then a kill by Smith and an ace by Bates pushed the gap to 22-17
>A block assist and kill by Riedl ended the set 25-29
>Smith led UCI with five kills in the set

FOURTH SET
>It was North Dakota that held the early 6-4 lead until UCI used a Smith kill and Fighting Hawk attack error to tie it up
>A 6-1 run which included two kills from Riedl propelled the Anteaters to a 13-9 lead
>Three consecutive kills by Gardiner made it 16-11 then a block by Gardiner and Reidl plus a Riedl ace put UCI at 18-12
>Three straight points by North Dakota made it interesting before kills by Bates and Riedl ended the set, 25-19

NOTES
>UCI had a dig by 10 of its 11 players
>Libero Campbell Jensen added five digs and six set assists

UP NEXT
>In a quick turnaround, UCI will face Tulane at 3:00 p.m. in the second match of the day from the Johnson Center.