PROVO, Utah – In a showdown of undefeated teams, No. 5 UC Irvine battled back from two sets down to reverse sweep No. 8 BYU, 3-2 at Smith Fieldhouse Friday night.

The Anteaters rallied after losing the first two sets 16-25, 25-21 to win the next three 26-24, 25-23, and 15-13.

UC Irvine trailed 8-12 in the fifth set before out-scoring the Cougars 7-1 to close out the match. In the final push, middle blocker Trevor Clark had three blocks and two kills.

UCI was led by freshman Andrej Jokanovic who had a career-high 19 kills with just two errors (.436) and five assists, a dig, an ace and a block assist. He was followed by senior William D'Arcy's 16 kills. The reigning Big West Offensive Player of the Week added two digs and three blocks.

Clark had a career-high 13 kills, hitting .650 on 20 swings without an error. He had a team-high five total blocks (1 solo).

UC Irvine improves to 6-0, while BYU goes to 4-1.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID:
"This is a fun group of 'Eaters. I appreciated the investment the boys put into this contest. This is a good project. Even if we had lost, as we easily could have, their investment will pay dividends. Nice to win. And just good to strive with this crew."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Setter Aidan Rigg posted a career-high 30 set assists in four sets. He recorded three kills, three aces and four digs
>Cameron Kosty and Andreas Brinck each had three kills, with Kosty totaling 12 set assists, three digs and a block and Brinck collecting a career-high six digs and two block assists
>Libero Shane Aitken scooped a match and season-high 12 digs
>The Cougars held the advantage in hitting percentage (.355-.322) and blocks (11-8), while the Anteaters held the slight lead in digs (34-32) and aces (4-3)
>Both teams had 21 service errors
>Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga paced BYU with 18 kills, while Gavin Chambers had eight total blocks (1 solo)

FIRST SET
>Four in a row by the Cougars on two blocks and two kills gave BYU a 5-1 lead
>UCI tried to chip away going on a 4-1run with the help of two Cougars service errors and kills by Micah Goss and Cameron Kosty, 11-15
>A kill, block, ace and UCI service error pushed the BYU lead to 20-12
>A UCI service error handed BYU the 25-16 victory
>UCI hit just .103 with five service errors

SECOND SET
>BYU once again jumped out to an early 5-2 lead
>A Cougar attack error, kill by Andrej Jokanovic and an ace by Aidan Rigg brought UCI within 8-9
>Andreas Brinck had a kill and block assist with William D'Arcy to tie the set at 12-12
>The Cougars answered with the next three to get to the media timeout, 15-12
>Out of the break, UCI had a kill by D'Arcy, 13-15
>The teams would trade points until a BYU kill was followed by a UCI attack error to give the Cougars a 20-16 cushion
>UCI hung around on two BYU errors, 21-24 before a Cougar kill ended the set

THIRD SET
>Clark got up high for a kill followed by an ace from Jokanovic, 2-1
>A kill by Jokanoic and an ace by Rigg moved UCI out to an 8-6 lead
>An Anteater service error and BYU kill knotted the score at 11s then another UCI service error and block moved the Cougars in front 12-11
>UCI scored four in a row, two on BYU miscues and two on kills by D'Arcy, 16-13
>A great set by Rigg led to a kill by D'Arcy down the line followed by a kill from Jokanovic from the backrow to force a BYU timeout, 19-15
>BYU wouldn't go away, going on a 5-2 run to creep within 21-22 before D'Arcy stopped the momentum with a kill
>A BYU kill and an ace tied the set at 23-23
>Kills by Jokanovic and D'Arcy gave UCI the final two points, 26-24
>D'Arcy had eight kills in the set

FOURTH SET
>A kill by Jokanovic, ace by Rigg, a Cougar attack error and kill by D'Arcy put the Anteaters up 5-3
>Back-to-back kills by Jokanovic and D'Arcy made it 7-4
>Consecutive kills by Andon Kiriakou stretched the lead to 16-12
>An inadvertent whistle led to a replay and the ensuing point was a block by Kiriakou and Beck Weber, 18-14
>Following a BYU timeout, Rigg had a kill on a swing from the right side off of a jumping set by Aitken, 19-14
>After BYU closed to 17-20, a kill by Jokanovic was followed by a Cougar attack that sailed wide, 22-17
>Three consecutive kills by BYU forced a UCI timeout, 20-22
>Out of the break a BYU block made it interesting, 21-22, but a block by Kosty and Clark answered, 23-21
>The teams battled back and forth until a BYU service error gave UCI the 25-23 victory

FIFTH SET
>BYU took a quick 5-2 lead then three consecutive kills extended the lead to 9-4
>A BYU service error and a block by Weber and Brinck kept UCI close, 7-10
>A Cougar attack cut wide and a kill by Jokanovic forced a BYU timeout, 10-12
>The run continued on a block by D'Arcy and Clark and a kill by Clark with the help of a Cougar into the net, 12-12
>A block by D'Arcy and Clark moved the Anteaters into the lead, 13-12
>Following a BYU timeout, the Cougars had a kill to knot the score at 13s
>Clark took over with a kill and a solo block on the left side to complete the reverse sweep, 15-13

NOTES
>UCI has won the last three matches at Smith Fieldhouse
>It's the eighth win in Provo all-time
>Jokanovic's 19 kills ties D'Arcy for most by an Anteater this season, which are tied for third most by a Big West player

UP NEXT
The same two teams tangle again tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. PT. B1G+ is free this weekend to watch the match.