Brett Kohout & Mike Ortiz in the mix against UC Santa Cruz

February 14, 2007

No. 3 UC IRVINE TOPS UC SANTA CRUZ, 3-0 (boxscore)

Irvine, Calif. – No. 3 UC Irvine topped UC Santa Cruz, 3-0 (30-22, 30-23, 30-23) in a non-conference match Wednesday at Crawford Court.

Senior opposite Matt Webber led the Anteaters with 13 kills and three service aces followed by outside hitter Jayson Jablonsky with 10 kills, hitting .588 (10-0-17) and firing two aces on the night. Middle blocker Aaron Harrell hit .714 on five kills, no errors and seven swings. Setter Ryan Ammerman totaled a career-high 30 assists, while middle blocker Mike Ortiz totaled five kills and hit .571 (5-1-7). The Anteaters fired a season-high 10 service aces in the match.

UCI middle blocker David Smith recorded five block assists to go with four kills, giving him 373 block assists in his career, one shy of the UCI career record held by Kyle Weichert (374) from 2001-04.

UC Santa Cruz was led by Austin Einhorn with a match-high 15 kills, hitting .737 (15-1-19) from the middle. Jesse Garber added nine kills and a match-high six block assists, while Bryan Shires had a team-high five digs. Setter Eric Rowell totaled 36 assists.

The Anteaters never trailed in the match, starting game one with a 6-2 lead and game three with a 9-2 advantage. UCI led 9-7 in game two then used a 4-1 run which featured two kills by Webber to open a 13-8 cushion. The Anteaters did not commit a hitting error in game two ending with 19 kills on 27 attempts for .704 hitting percentage.

The Anteaters improve to 13-3 overall, while the Banana Slugs go to 9-4 on the year.