SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The UC Irvine duo of Nolan Flexen and Hilir Henno powered the offense to a 3-0 victory over Tusculum at the UCSB ASICS Invitational Friday afternoon at Rob Gym.

Flexen led the third ranked Anteaters with a season-high 14 kills, hitting .478 (14-3-23) and adding a team-high five digs to go with two aces and two block assists.

Henno could not be stopped offensively, hitting .619 without an error, recording 13 kills on 21 swings.

Redshirt feshman Aidan Rigg guided the Anteaters to a scorching .477 hitting percentage (37-6-65) in his Anteater debut. The setter totaled 28 set assists, three kills, two aces and four digs.

The Anteaters recorded 13 aces, led by middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev's career-high five.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Freshman Tim Ennis collected his first three career kills and four digs
>Middle blocker Micah Goss had two kills, two aces and two total blocks (1 solo)
>Libero Shane Aitken popped up four digs in the win
>Tusculum was led by Deklan Wingo's nine kills
>The Pioneers hit .161 and did not record a block or ace
 
FIRST SET
>An Aidan Rigg service ace and three Hilir Henno kills put UCI in front 5-2
>UCI would go on a 12-2 run that included four aces, two by Nolan Flexen and two by Maxim Grigoriev, two Flexen kills and four Pioneer errors to extend the advantage to 21-9
>An ace by Micah Goss would complete the set, 25-12
>Henno was errorless, hitting .833 (5-0-6)

SECOND SET
>Behind the tough serving of Grigoriev, the Anteaters exploded out of the gate with a 9-1 lead, which included two aces, three TU attack errors and was capped by an Rigg kill
>Five consecutive Tusculum errors, the last two on a Henno ace and a block by Flexen and Micah Goss, 23-11
>Flexen put away the set winner, 25-14

THIRD SET
>Lucas Winn had a kill and block assist as UCI went up 5-1
>A kill and ace by Tim Ennis sandwiched a kill by Flexen, 19-12
>UCI would out-score the Pioneers 9-2 to end the match, 25-14. The final run saw a kill and ace by Ennis and two kills and an ace by Rigg
>The Anteaters hit .542 (14-1-24) in the final frame

NOTES
>Henno is hitting .571 (22-2-35) over the first two matches, committing just two errors
>Lucas Winn joined Ennis and Rigg in their UCI debuts
>Over the first two matches, UCI has totaled 27 aces

UP NEXT
UCI rounds out the Invitational facing Missouri S&T tomorrow (Jan. 11) at 4:30 p.m.