UC Irvine Advances To Big West Semifinal With 3-1 Victory Over CSUN

Thursday, April 23

Irvine, CA

7:30 PM

UC Irvine

18-7,5-5Big West

CSUN

12-15,0-10Big West

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
CSUN	20	25	16	23	1
UC Irvine	25	20	25	25	3

UC Irvine Advances To Big West Semifinal With 3-1 Victory Over CSUN

April 23, 2026 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Stacey Shackleford

PRESS CONFERENCE

IRVINE, Calif. – Third-seed UC Irvine beat sixth-seed CSUN, 3-1 (25-20, 20-25, 25-16, 25-23) in the first round of The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship at the Bren Events Center Thursday.

The Anteaters, who improve to 18-7 overall, will face No. 2 Long Beach State in the second semifinal match at 7:30 p.m. at the Bren Events Center tomorrow.

UC Irvine was led by freshmen Andreas Brinck and Andrej Jokanovic with 13 kills each, a career-best for Brinck. Jokanovic fired four aces, eight digs and three total blocks (1 solo).

UCI had 12.5 blocks, the second most this season and 10 aces, the third most by the Anteaters in 2026.

Middle blocker Trevor Clark, The Big West leader in hitting percentage, was efficient once again, hitting .526 (12-2-19) with three block assists.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Setter Cameron Kosty returned to the lineup and posted 41 set assists, four block assists, two digs and an ace
>Libero Shane Aitken had a match-high nine digs
>Middle blocker Micah Goss had a match and season-high tying six block assists to go with four kills
>Opposite William D'Arcy recorded six kills, six digs, four total blocks (1 solo) and two aces
>UCI hit .283 and held a slight advantage in digs 33-31
>The Matadors had 10 blocks, seven aces and hit .242
>CSUN's Jalen Phillips led all players with 21 kills, five aces and six block assists

FIRST SET
>Back-to-back kills plus a CSUN attack error gave the Anteaters the 10-7 lead
>A 6-2 run by the Matadors, the last an ace, brought CSUN within 13-14 before UCI used a service error and two kills by Andreas Brinck and another by Micah Goss, an ace by Trevor Clark and block by to move the margin back out to 18-13
>UCI would build a 23-16 lead on a William D'Arcy kill before CSUN rallied on three in a row to force a UCI timeout
>Three consecutive service errors ended the set with a 25-20 Anteater victory
>UCI out-hit CSUN .346 to .048

SECOND SET
>CSUN led 4-2 then the Anteaters used a service error, block by Cameron Kosty and Goss, a kill by Brinck and an ace by D'Arcy to move in front 6-4
>A 5-1 run by CSUN put the Matadors on top 10-9
>A kill by Clark in the middle, block by Goss and Brinck and an ace by Clark gave UCI the 14-12 advantage
>Three unanswered by the Matadors, two on UCI errors, knotted the set at 16 all
>A kill and block gave CSUN some separation, 20-18
>CSUN had four in a row, two kills, a block and an ace to end the set, 25-20

THIRD SET
>Two kills by Andrej Jokanovic started the scoring then a kill from Clark and an ace by Jokanovic helped UCI to a 5-2 lead
>UCI would lead 13-6 on two Matador errors and two kills by Clark
>A triple block by Brinck, D'Arcy, and Goss increased the lead to 17-9
>An ace by Brinck made it 21-12 and kill by Clark put UCI at set point, 24-15
>A UCI service error delayed the set winner by D'Arcy, 25-16

FOURTH SET
>Kills by Brinck and Jokanovic gave UCI a 6-4 lead before CSUN had five straight including three aces by Jalen Phillips to move the Matadors to a 9-6 advantage
>A solo block by Jokanovic and an ace by Kosty tied the score at 10-10
>UCI ripped off four in a row on a kill by Clark, two aces courtesy of Jokanovic and a block by Clark and D'Arcy, 14-11
>Three Phillips kills in a 5-0 run gave CSUN an 18-16 advantage
>A kill by Brinck and an ace by D'Arcy knotted the score at 18-18
>UCI took a 20-19 lead on a triple block by Jokanovic, Kosty and Goss
>Tied at 23-23, UCI had a kill by Clark and a walk-off ace from Jokanovic for the 25-23 victory

NOTES
>UCI advances to the semifinals for the fifth consecutive year and seventh time in program history