IRVINE, Calif. – Freshman Andrej Jokanovic powered No. 4 UC Irvine to a 3-1 victory (25-20, 25-22, 21-25, 26-24) over No. 11 UC Santa Barbara at the Bren Events Center Wednesday.

Jokanovic recorded a match-high 20 kills with an ace and four digs to pace the Anteaters.

Libero Shane Aitken popped up a career-best 15 digs, which are tied for the most by a Big West player this season and tied for 10^th nationally in a four-set match.

UCI wins their Big West opener and improves to 13-2 overall. UCSB evens its conference record at 1-1 and goes to 9-7 overall.

HEAD COACH DAVID KNIFFIN SAID:
"Great to get a good win, a conference win against a good conference team.That match went exactly how we thought it would in the sense that Santa Barbara plays fantastic defense and can be an incredibly frustrating team to play against and are well coached so it was nice to see us stay consistent."

"I thought Andrej showed a lot of maturity tonight. That's a tough team to score against and he came through on some big moments and was very steady in frustrating moments. I was proud of his mentality tonight."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Senior William D'Arcy totaled 11 kills, five digs and two block assists
>Middle blocker Micah Goss added nine kills and a team-high three block assists
>Middle blocker Trevor Clark hit .467 with eight kills, one ace and a block assist
>Setter Cameron Kosty tallied 43 set assists, a career-high three aces and a career-tying seven digs
>Outside hitter Andon Kiriakou fired three aces to go with five kills, seven digs and two block assists
>UCSB out-hit UCI .312-.217 and dominated the net, out-blocking the Anteaters 12-4.5
>UCI held the advantage in aces 8-1 and digs 41-36
>Ethan Saint led the Gauchos with 20 kills
>UCI took advantage of 21 UCSB service errors

FIRST SET
>Kills by Andrej Jokanovic and Trevor Clark along with an ace by Andon Kiriakou and Gaucho attack error gave UCI an early 4-1 lead
>UCSB answered with a 5-1 run to move ahead 6-5
>UCI went up 13-9 on kills by Kiriakou and Jokanovic
>UCSB closed to 18-17 before Andon Kiriakou had a kill and back-to-back aces to create some separation, 21-17
>UCI won the set 25-20 on a kill by William D'Arcy
>The Anteaters were helped by 10 UCSB service errors

SECOND SET
>Back-to-back blocks by Goss put the Anteaters up 10-8
>The Gauchos would take control on four straight points, including two blocks, 18-15
>The Gauchos would hold a 20-17 lead before a D'Arcy kill was followed by three Kosty aces to put the Anteaters in front 21-20
>Kills by D'Arcy and Clark ended the set 25-22

THIRD SET
>UCSB took the early 10-7 lead on a kill
>Goss would crush an overpass to tie the set at 10-10 then did it again to put the Anteaters up 13-11
>UCI led 19-16 on kill by Jokanovic before the Gauchos went on a 7-1 run to lead 23-20
>UCSB would win on block, 25-21

FOURTH SET
>UCI would make the first move, opening an 18-13 advantage after a kill by Jokanovic, ace by Clark, Gaucho attack error and a kill by Goss
>A 4-1 run by UCSB closed the gap 17-19
>The Gauchos would out-score the Anteaters 6-4 to tie the set at 23-23
>A kill by Jokanovic and a Gaucho attack that was cut wide ended the match, 26-24

NOTES
>Jokanovic posted 20-plus kills for the second time in his career
>It is the fifth time this season Aitken has totaled double-digit digs
>D'Arcy has a streak of 11 double-figure kill matches
>UCI celebrated Court 21 which is inspired by Tim Vorenkamp and his motto to Live For Others

UP NEXT
The teams will tangle again on Friday (Mar. 13) at 7:00 p.m. at the Thunderdome