No. 3 UC Irvine Concludes UCSB Invite With Win Over Missouri S&T

Saturday, January 11

Santa Barbara, Calif.

4:30 p.m.

UC Irvine

3-0,0-0Big West

Missouri S&T

0-3,0-0DI Independent

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Missouri S&T	18	21	14	0
UC Irvine	25	25	25	3

No. 3 UC Irvine Concludes UCSB Invite With Win Over Missouri S&T

January 11, 2025 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Stacey Shackleford

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – No. 3 UC Irvine concluded the UCSB ASICS Invitational with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-14) victory over Missouri S&T at Rob Gym Saturday.

UC Irvine had a balanced offensive attack led by National Player of the Year Hilir Henno's 15 kills, eight digs and five aces.

Outside hitter Nolan Flexen followed with 11 kills and a team-high four blocks.

Middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev posted eight kills and matched Flexen with a team-best four blocks. The junior also added an ace.

Henno and Grigoriev were named to the All-Tournament team.

UCI starts the season 3-0 without dropping a set.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Freshman Tim Ennis had a career-best five kills and five digs
>Setter Joe Karlous recorded 38 set assists and five digs
>Middle blocker Micah Goss totaled four kills, two blocks and an ace
>The Miners (0-3) were led by Aaron Sallade's match-high 16 kills and five digs
>The Anteaters held the advantage in hitting percentage (.380-.143), blocks (7-4) and aces (7-2)

FIRST SET
>UCI scored four in a row on two kills by Nolan Flexen and one each by Tim Ennis and Micah Goss, 6-2
>The Miners would out-score UCI 6-2, two on aces, to tie the set at 8-8
>The Anteaters quickly regained control on a kills by Flexen and Hilir Henno and two blocks by Flexen and Maxim Grigoriev, 13-9
>Following a Missouri S&T timeout, UCI went up 18-10 on three consecutive Miner errors and a kills by Flexen and Goss before another timeout
>Missouri S&T responded with a 6-2 spurt to force a UCI timeout, 20-16
>Back-to-back kills by Flexen and Henno stopped the momentum, 22-16
>Each team would have a service error and a kill before Grigoriev put down the set-winner, 25-18

SECOND SET
>UCI took a 6-4 lead on a 4-1 run which included an ace by Goss
>UCI's second ace of the match was courtesy of Grigoriev followed by a block by Goss and Henno, 10-7
>The Miners would score four straight, three on UCI attack errors, 15-15
>Kills by Grigoriev and Henno moved UCI back in front 17-15
>The Miners would catch the Anteaters at 18s
>The teams would battle back-and-forth until Flexen recorded consecutive kills and MST had an attack error, 23-20
>Kills by Tim Ennis and Grigoriev ended the set, 25-21

THIRD SET
>A kill and ace by Henno helped UCI out to a 3-0 start
>A block by Ennis and Grigoriev made it 5-1 then a solo by Grigoriev extended the lead to 7-2
>UCI exploded with seven straight, including four aces by Henno, 18-8
>Consecutive kills by Goss, Henno and Ennis increased the lead to 21-10
>Back-to-back kills by Grigoriev set up match point then following a Miner kill, Henno ended the match, 25-14

NOTES
>Libero Shane Aitken had a career-best six digs
>Henno increased his career-leading ace total to 191

UP NEXT
UCI will have the week off before hosting No. 6 BYU on Jan. 22 at the Bren Events Center. First serve is 6:00 p.m.