No. 3 UC Irvine Sweeps Menlo; Henno Sets All-Time Ace Record

Thursday, January 9

Santa Barbara, Calif.

7:00 p.m.

UC Irvine

1-0,0-0Big West

Menlo

1-1,0-0MPSF

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Menlo	14	10	21	0
UC Irvine	25	25	25	3

No. 3 UC Irvine Sweeps Menlo; Henno Sets All-Time Ace Record

January 09, 2025 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Stacey Shackleford

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The service line was the highlight of No. 3 UC Irvine's 3-0 win (25-14, 25-10, 25-21) over Menlo at Rob Gym Thursday at the UCSB ASICS Invitational.

The Anteaters fired 14 aces for the match, including four from reigning National Player of the Year Hilir Henno, who became UCI's all-time leader with 185 and counting. Henno passes Hall of Famer Carson Clark who had 183 from 2009-12.

Henno also led UCI with nine kills, hitting .500 (9-2-14).

Middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev matched Henno at the service line with four, while hitting .667 with seven kills on nine swings with just one error. The junior tied freshman Micah Goss for the team lead in blocks with four (1 solo, three assisted).

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Nolan Flexen hit .500 with eight kills to go with a team-best six digs, two aces and two blocks
>Junior William D'Arcy added six kills, two digs, two blocks and an ace
>Libero Shane Aitken had five digs in his Anteater debut
>Setter Joe Karlous totaled 24 set assists and pitched in a dig and an block assist
>The Anteaters out-hit the Oaks .431-.048 and held an 8-2 advantage in blocks
>Mustafa Seluk Uyar led Menlo with seven kills, five digs and two aces

FIRST SET
>UCI used a kill and service ace by Hilir Henno and a kill by William D'Arcy to take a 10-8 lead
>Back-to-back aces by Maxim Grigoriev pushed the lead to 13-9
>Micah Goss picked up his first two collegiate kills, while Nolan Flexen fired an ace to extend the advantage to 19-11
>The Anteaters would close out the set on kills by Grigoriev and Henno and two aces from Aidan Schulten, 25-14
>UCI hit .565 and fired six aces in the set

SECOND SET
>Grigoriev took control from the start of the second set with a kill and three blocks, one solo and two with Henno as UCI held a quick 6-0 lead
>UCI had a 3-0 run that included kills by D'Arcy and Flexen and a block by Flexen and Goss, 10-3
>Henno tied Carson Clark for the UCI career ace record at 21-9
>A kill and ace by Grigoriev and a Menlo attack error ended the set, 25-10

THIRD SET
>UCI would lead 4-3 on a block by Goss and D'Arcy before Menlo peeled off five in a row to take a 8-4 lead
>With Menlo leading 13-8, UCI made a run, using a kill by Flexen, a setting error by Menlo and two aces from Henno, making him the all-time leader at UCI and tying the set at 13-13
>Two errors by Menlo plus a kill by Henno and an ace by Flexen pushed the Anteaters in front 20-17
>D'Arcy would record the match-winner, 25-21

NOTES
>Six different Anteaters recorded an ace, including two by Aidan Schulten and one by Micah Goss

UP NEXT
UCI will take on Tusculum tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. in the second match of the Invitational.