Sports in Brief (01/22/13)
Joel Marshall | Jan 22, 2013 | Comments 0
Men’s Volleyball
Despite double-digit kills from three UC Irvine players, the top-ranked men’s volleyball team fell to the no. 3 BYU Cougars last Friday, 3-1 (25-20, 25-23, 19-25, 25-22) on the road.
This is the third consecutive loss for the Anteaters, and it comes just over a week after they raised their 2012 National Championship in the Bren. The team is 4-3 overall so far this season, and 1-3 in the MPSF.
Senior All-American Kevin Tillie led UCI with a season-high 19 kills, while outside hitter Jeremy Dejno recorded 16 kills and junior Connor Hughes added 11 kills.
BYU took the first two sets with late runs despite the Anteaters keeping the game close for most of those sets. UCI took the third set, but BYU took the fourth set and thereby the match.
UCI travels to CSUN on Wednesday, and returns home for the “Black and Blue” Rivalry Series vs. Long Beach State at home on Saturday.
Women’s Tennis
The women’s tennis team had a difficult test for their first game of the season, visiting the fourth-ranked USC Trojans.
Anteater Kristina Smith and Sarah Gong took on the no. 1 duo in the nation, Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria. USC took that set, and the second and third sets, capturing the doubles point. USC also ended up taking all six singles points, despite a tough battle from freshman Sarah Stadfelt in the no. 5 position.
UCI travels to Los Angeles this upcoming weekend for the ITA kick-off weekend.
Men’s Tennis
In their final match last weekend in Hawaii, the Anteaters fell 6-1 to the Sacramento State Hornets, and are now 0-3 overall and 0-1 in Big West play.
The Anteaters Tyler Pham and Jonathan Poon got a big win at the no. 2 doubles spot. But UCI lost their other two doubles matches. The no. 3 pair of Justin Agbayani and Reo Asami stung the Hornets, but fell in the end after a tiebreaker.
In singles play, Asami lost for the first time to the Hornets’ Aliaksandr Malko. Anteater Ryan Chung delivered the sole point on the day, earning a straight set victory at the the no. 3 spot. Tyler Pham nearly won a set, but lost in the end.
Tuesday, the 29th, UCI travels to Los Angeles to take on no. 2 USC.
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