No. 9 UC Irvine Hosts No. 2 Cal State Northridge In Regular Season Home Finale Tuesday

Senior, Aaron Harrell

No. 9 UC Irvine Hosts No. 2 Cal State Northridge In Regular Season Home Finale Tuesday
Seniors honored before the match

March 31, 2008


UC IRVINE HOSTS NORTHRIDGE; TRAVELS TO UC SANTA BARABRA: No. 9 UC Irvine (12-13, 8-10) will take on No. 2 Cal State Northridge Tuesday (Apr. 1) at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center before traveling to UC Santa Barbara Saturday (Apr. 5) at 7:00 p.m. in Robertson Gym.

Tuesday's match versus Northridge is the regular season home finale as UCI will play its last three matches on the road.

A senior ceremony will be held prior to the match.

VS THE OPPONENTS: Cal State Northridge leads the series with UCI, 24-15 all-time. The Matadors won the first meeting of the year, 3-0 in Northridge. Cal State Northridge leads the MPSF with a 15-3 record and are 20-4 overall this year.

UCSB holds a 29-14 advantage over the Anteaters all-time, but UCI has won the last two meetings of the year. UCI has won the last six meetings and nine of the last 10 outings. The Gauchos are 9-14 overall and 6-12 in the MPSF.

IN THE RANKINGS: UC Irvine stayed at No. 9 in the AVCA Coaches poll. The Anteaters have been ranked in the nation's top 10 for 48 consecutive weeks.

HARRELL SETS HITTING PERCENTAGE RECORD: Aaron Harrell set a new UCI match record for hitting percentage with a perfect 1.000 performance against UC San Diego. The middle blocker was 13 of 13 with no errors. Harrell takes the top spot from David Smith who hit .938 against UC Santa Barbara in 2007. The mark also ties the NCAA and MPSF records. This is the second match record Harrell has set this season, breaking the ace record with seven in the first match agianst Hawaii.

ASUKA MOVES UP SEASON RECORDS: Libero Brent Asuka has 245 digs this year which ranks third in the UCI season record book. Asuka holds the school mark with 336 set in 2006. He is 30 digs shy of Greg Ford's second place of 275 set in 2004. The junior has recorded 15 or more digs five times this year.

STELLER SWINGS AWAY: Opposite Jon Steller has averaged 22.40 kills over the last five matches. The junior has put-away double-digit kills in 13 of the last 14 matches, including hitting 20 or more kills five times. On the year, Steller averages 3.09 kills, 0.39 aces and 0.99 digs per game.

ANTEATERS GO 1-1 LAST WEEK: UCI upset No. 3 Long Beach State last week, 3-2 then was upset by UC San Diego, 3-2.

The win against Long Beach was only the ninth all-time and gave UCI a 21-14 lead in the Black & Blue Rivalry Series presented by Duke's of Huntington Beach.

Jon Steller led UCI in both matches with 26 kills versus Long Beach State and 22 against UC San Diego.