SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – No. 6 UC Irvine closed out the Asics Invitational with its third consecutive sweep in 3-0 victory over Maryville (25-16, 25-18, 25-21) at Rob Gym Saturday afternoon.

The Anteaters (3-0)  hit .460 (107-20-189) over the three matches, including a .452 mark (39-6-73) versus the Saints with a season-high 39 kills.

Outside hitter Andrej Jokanovic led UCI hitting .714 with 10 kills on 14 swings without an error. The freshman recorded seven aces over the last nine sets including three versus Maryville. He also totaled four digs and a block assists today.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Outside hitter Andon Kiriakou had seven kills, six digs and two aces
>Middle blocker Trevor Clark hit .667 (6-0-9) with two block assists
>Middle blocker Micah Goss had six kills, two digs and an ace
>Libero Shane Aitken  matched Kiriakou for the team-best in digs at six
>Setter Aidan Rigg recorded 13 set assists, three kills and a dig
>Setter Micah Tumas had a career-high eight set assists, two kills and a dig
>Redshirt freshman Cameron Kosty added three kills, seven set assists, two digs and a block assist
>William D'Arcy had two kills and Aidan Schulten had two set assists
>UCI had six aces and a season-low two blocks   
>Maryville's Makai Scott led all players with 13 kills

FIRST SET
>A block assist by Cameron Kosty and Trevor Clark, a Maryvolle error and kill by Andrej Jokanovic got UCI out to an early  3-1 lead
>Kosty powered it off the hands fron the rightside to bump the score to 8-4
>Kills by Andon Kiriakou and Micah Goss forced a Maryville timeout, 11-5
>A Kiriakou slammed a kill crosscourt, 18-19
>Goss skied for a kill, 23-12
>UCI's lone hitting error occurred after the Anteaters' 23^rd point
>Clark put away the set winner from the middle, 25-16
>UCI ended hitting .593 with just one error (17-1-27)

SECOND SET
>Teams traded points until UCI moved out to an 8-4 lead after three Maryville errors and a kill by Aidan Rigg, 8-4
>After a flurry of service errors by each team Kiriakou put down an overpass, 16-11
>Goss had a kill then stepped back to the service line and fired an ace, 20-14
>A Maryville service error was followed by an ace from Andrej Jokanovic, a tap back by Clark on an overpass, 24-10
>Clark once again with the set winner after Rigg brought the set back and on point, 25-18

THIRD SET
Maryville held the 2-1 lead until UCI scored three in a row on a kill by Rigg, block assist by Jokanovic and Clark and ace by Kiriakou to go in front 5-4
>Jokanovic changed speed on the serve for an ace to tie the score at 9s
>Consecutove hitting errors on wide and one into the net gave UCI the 12-10 advantage
>With the Saints leading 18-16, UCI used a soft tip to the middle of court by Jokanovic, a Maryville attack error and a cross court slam by D'Arcy
>A one-arm stab dig by Kiriakou in the back was hit over on two by Micah Tumas to finish the match, 25-21

NOTES
>Clark did not commit an attacking error during the tournament, 18-0-23 (.783)
>The Anteaters held a 25-1 aces and 21-4 block advantage over the three matches

UP NEXT
UCI has its home opener Wednesday (Jan. 14), entertaining Princeton at 6:00 p.m. at the Bren Events Center.