No. 4 UC Irvine Beats Sacred Heart, 3-0

Saturday, March 8

Irvine, CA

7:00 p.m.

UC Irvine

12-4,0-2Big West

Sacred Heart

3-11,0-6EIVA

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Sacred Heart	17	16	13	0
UC Irvine	25	25	25	3

No. 4 UC Irvine Beats Sacred Heart, 3-0

March 08, 2025 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Stacey Shackleford

IRVINE, Calif. – No. 4 UC Irvine registered its second consecutive sweep with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-13) win over Sacred Heart at the Bren Events Center Saturday.

The Anteaters were led by outside hitter Nolan Flexen with 11 kills, five block assists and two aces followed by outside hitter Hilir Henno with 10 kills, hitting .500 (10-1-18) to go with three aces.

UC Irvine held SHU to a .056 (23-19-72) hitting percentage, while hitting at a .409 clip (36-9-66). UCI held the advantage in blocking (8-4.5) and aces (10-2).

The Anteaters improve to 12-4 overall, while the Pioneers go to 3-11.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Opposite William D'Arcy added seven kills and a season-high 10 digs plus two block assists
>Middle blocker Micah Goss continued his errorless kill streak, going 5-0-5
>Middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev matched Flexen with a team-best five block assists
>Sacred Heart was led by Aleksa Mandic and Jaron Popp with six kills each

FIRST SET
>Two kills by Nolan Flexen and an ace by William D'Arcy moved UCI out to an early 6-3 lead
>Sacred Heart answered with the next three then after a UCI kill the Pioneers would have a kill and a block to move in front 8-7
>UCI would score four unanswered on a kill by Hilir Henno, a block by D'Arcy and Maxim Grigoriev and two SHU attack errors to regain control, 12-9
>Consecutive kills by Flexen, D'Arcy and Henno were followed by an ace from Grigoriev, 17-11
>D'Arcy recorded a kill down the line to end the set, 25-17

SECOND SET
>With the score tied at 5-5, UCI used a kills by Flexen and Micah Goss and an ace by Flexen to take an 8-5 advantage
>Following three SHU points, UCI recorded points from a kill by Henno, a Pioneer attack error and an ace by Goss, 11-8
>A Henno ace capped four straight UCI points, 16-10
>UCI would go on to win 25-16 on consecutive kills by D'Arcy and Henno

THIRD SET
>Sacred Heart jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead before the Anteaters answered on a service error, kill by Flexen, two Pioneer attack errors, two aces by Henno and a triple block by Grigoriev, Flexen and D'Arcy, 7-3
>A 5-0 run was highlighted by consecutive blocks by Flexen and Goss, 14-5
>Two kills by D'Arcy and another from Henno pushed the lead to 20-10
>Aidan Rigg would swing for the win, 25-13

NOTES
>Setter Joe Karlous had a match-best 15 set assists
>Goss has not committed an error in four straight matches (21-0-29, .724)

UP NEXT
UCI will take a break and return to action with their final regular season non-conference matches at George Mason. The Anteaters will take on Daemen Mar. 21 and host Patriots Mar. 22.