PROVO, Utah – Senior William D'Arcy pounded a career-high 22 kills in UC Irvine's 3-2 (25-17, 26-24, 23-25, 23-25, 15-10) victory over BYU at Smith Fieldhouse Saturday evening.

D'Arcy, the reigning Big West Offenive Player of the Week, continued to dominate, recording four of his 22 kills in the final set to lead the fifth-ranked Anteaters to the victory. The opposite's 22 kills are second most by a Big West player this season and tied for third most nationally in a five-set match. He hit .462 (22-4-39) for the match with three digs and three block assists.

Freshman Andrej Jokanovic recorded his first career double-double with 14 kills and 10 digs. The outside hitter had two block assists and an ace.

UCI had a season-high 13 blocks to improve to 7-0 on the season.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Middle blocker Trevor Clark was impressive once again, hitting .625 on 11 kills on 16 swings with just one error. He had a match and career-high seven block assists which is tied for fourth in total blocks in the Big West and eighth nationally
>Setter Cameron Kosty had a career-high 49 set assists, third most by a Big West player in 2026. He recorded five digs, three block assists, three kills and an ace
>Outside hitter Andon Kiriakou put away five kills and had a career-high nine digs and three block assists
>Libero Shane Aitken had a match-high 12 digs for the second consecutive night
>Middle blocker Beck Weber made the start and had a season-high five block assists
>BYU (4-2) was led by Connor Oldani's 22 kills

FIRST SET
>UC Irvine came out of the gate swinging, starting with a 5-0 run on a pair of William D'Arcy kills followed a block by Beck Weber and Andon Kiriakou, an ace by Andrej Jokanovic and a kill by Kiriakou
>A 4-1 spurt which featured two kills by Trevor Clark and one each from D'Arcy and Jokanovic, 10-4
>Weber watched a soft punch over fall to the floor to give UCI the 14-7 lead
>UCI went up 16-9 on a huge block by D'Arcy and Clark
>Three consecutive BYU attack errors forced a Cougar timeout with UCI leading 20-12
>The Anteaters used a service error and block by Clark and D'Arcy to get to set point, 24-16
>Following a BYU kill, Clark ended the set with a kill from the middle, 25-17
>UCI hit . 542 (14-1-24) while holding the Cougars to a .080 mark

SECOND SET
>BYU led 6-3 before kills from D'Arcy and Jokanovic narrowed the margin to 5-6
>A Cougar kill and two Anteater attack errors stretched BYU's lead to 11-7
>After trailing 9-15, UCI came alive on a Cougar attack error, an ace by Aidan Schulten and a triple block by Clark, Kiriakou and Andreas Brinck, 12-15
>Back-to-back BYU attack errors was followed by a block by Brinck and Weber and a kill by Weber, 17-18
>Kills by Jokanovic and D'Arcy and a block by Kiriakou and Weber gave UCI its first lead 21-20
>After trading points, Clark had a kill and Weber and Cameron Kosty closed the set with a block, 26-24

THIRD SET
>UCI led 4-2 on a Weber ace and continued to build a 7-4 advantage on a Jokanovic kill
>A kill and a block by the Cougars knotted the score at 9s then three straight kills gave BYU its first lead 13-11
>A kill by Clark and a pair of Cougar miscues tied the set at 14-14
>A UCI service error, BYU block and kill forced a UCI timeout, 15-18
>A kill by D'Arcy and an ace by Weber inched UCI to 19-20
>A block by Jokanovic and Clark tied the set at 22 all
>Tied at 23-23, BYU would end the set with a pair of kills, 25-23

FOURTH SET
>BYU made the first move with three consecutive points, 10-8
>The Anteaters would take a 14-12 advantage on back-to-back kills from Kiriakou and Jokanovic
>The Cougars responded with consecutive blocks to move BYU back in front 16-15
>A kill and Anteater attack error gave BYU the 18-16 cushion
>A block by Clark and Kosty was followed by a kill by D'Arcy off the block to tie the set, 23-23
>BYU would force a fifth set, winning the game on a kill and UCI attack error, 25-23

FIFTH SET
>UCI scored on a kill by D'Arcy before Jokanovic pinballed a kill off the block helping the Anteaters their first lead, 6-5
>A kill by Jokanovic and a block by Clark and Kosty increased the lead to 8-6
>BYU needed a timeout after an ace by Kosty, 10-7
>Two Cougar errors helped the Anteaters to a 12-8 advantage
>Brinck locked down the line with a block with Clark, 13-8
>A kill by Kiriakou ended the set with a kill, 15-10  

NOTES
>Jokanovic has recorded an ace in every match this season
>Aidan Schulten fired his sixth ace of the season
>UCI has won four straight in Smith Fieldhouse and ninth all-time

UP NEXT
UC Irvine hosts Stanford twice next week, starting the series on Friday (Jan. 30) at 6:00 p.m. at the Bren Events Center.