PRESS CONFERENCE

Honolulu, Hawaii -- Third-seed UC Irvine lost in four sets to second seed Hawaii (21-25, 25-15, 21-25, 23-25) in a semifinal of the Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

The night's highlight was senior Hilir Henno recording six aces, giving him 255 in his career which tied the NCAA all-time record held by UC Santa Barbara's Evan Patek from 2004-07.

Outside hitter Nolan Flexen pounded a team-high 15 kills to go with five digs, two aces and two block assists.

The Rainbow Warrior block was the key, besting the Anteaters 14.5 to 6.5 at the net.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Henno was one shy of a double-double with nine kills and a match and season-high 12 digs
>Middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev had a team-best four block assists and three kills
>Middle blocker Micah Goss recorded eight kills, an ace, three digs and a block assist
>Setter Joe Karlous totaled 30 set assists, five digs and two total blocks (1 solo)
>Outside hitter Tim Ennis tallied four kills and four digs
>Setter Aidan Rigg had three kills
>Hawaii's Adrien Roure led all players with 18 kills
>UCI (21-7) had 12 aces, but hit .234 (43-18-107)
>Hawaii (25-5) hit .306 and had eight aces. Each team recorded 33 digs

FIRST SET
>The Anteaters started the match with a block by William D'Arcy and Grigoriev
>Hawaii answered with the next four, 4-1
>A UH service error, kill by Micah Goss and a solo block by Joe Karlous tied the set at 7-7
>Hawaii scored three unanswered, capped by an ace to take a 10-7 lead
>A kill and ace by Hilir Henno made it 12-12
>A 4-1 run which included two UH aces moved Hawaii out to a 17-14 lead
>Another ace forced a UCI timeout, 19-15
>UCI rallied on a kill by Henno and back-to-back aces by Aidan Rigg to close the gap 19-20
>Once again Hawaii would answer, scoring the next three, 19-23
>Teams would side out giving Hawaii the 25-23 win

SECOND SET
>A pair of aces by UH's Tread Rosenthal started the set, 2-0
>A kill by Nolan Flexen and a Hawaii attack error tied the set at 3s
>UCI would score six in a row, using kills by Goss, Tim Ennis and Henno, an ace by Flexen and two UH errors to move in front 9-4
>A kill and block assist by Maxim Grigoriev extended the lead to 13-8
>Kills by Flexen and Ennis and another ace by Henno forced a UH timeout, 16-9
>Consecutive kills by Goss made it 19-11
>A kill and ace by Henno ended the set, 25-15
>After hitting .087 in the first set, UCI hit .560 (14-0-25) in the second. Flexen was the spark with six kills, hitting .750 (6-0-8)

THIRD SET
>Consecutive blocks and a kill helped Hawaii to a 5-2 lead
>UCI closed to 5-6 on an ace by Goss
>A kill, block and an ace gave UH 13-8 separation
>Another three in a row provided a 16-10 lead for the Rainbow Warriors
>UCI would score five straight with Flexen powering the Anteaters with a pair of kills, 16-17
>UCI would win a long rally ended by Flexen then Henno would have an ace to tie it at 19-19
>Two kills by Hawaii moved the Rainbow Warriors out to the 21-19 lead
>Hawaii would score the final three points, the last two kills by Finn Kearney, 25-21

FOURTH SET
>UCI took a slight 6-4 lead on a kill by Henno out of the backrow plus a triple block by Ennis, Karlous and Goss
>Hawaii would go on a 7-1 run and move out to a 16-12 lead
>Henno would tie the NCAA all-time record at 18-20 then a UH attack inched UCI to 19-20
>The teams would trade points until the Rainbow Warriors got to 25 on a service error, 25-23

NOTES
>UCI snapped a six-match winning streak
>With a solid resume of tough scheduling and winning down the stretch with a healthy squad, UCI will wait its fate for an NCAA At-Large selection Sunday