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February 1, 2003

NO. 1 UC IRVINE SWEEPS NO. 2 HAWAII (boxscore)

IRVINE, CA --- A capacity-crowd was in attendance as UC Irvine swept Hawaii Saturday in Crawford Hall. The 3-0 sweep against the Warriors is a first for the Anteater program. UCI's only other win against Hawaii was in 1999, a five-game victory in Crawford Hall.

UCI's Jimmy Pelzel and Spencer Bemus were the only players to score double-figure kills with 16 and 14, respectively. The Warriors edged out UCI in digs, 19-16, but it was the Anteater blocking that was one of the key factors in the win. UC Irvine finished the match with 15.5 team blocks to Hawaii's five. Russ Marchewka led the squad with a career-high seven block assists and Monte Tucker tied his career-high with six.  Setter David Kniffin had 40 set assists as UCI improved to 11-1 overall and 4-1 in the MPSF.

Hawaii was led by Tony Ching and Delano Thomas, who had nine kills apiece. Matt Motter tallied six digs and Kimo Tuyay put up 29 set assists for the squad. With the loss, Hawaii falls to 6-2 overall and 2-2 in conference action.

UC IRVINE MEN'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM RANKED NO. 1 IN THE NATION
IRVINE, Calif. --- The UC Irvine men's volleyball team, under first-year head coach John Speraw, has been ranked No. 1 in the nation for the first time in the program's history in the latest USA Today / American Volleyball Coaches Association poll released Tuesday (Jan. 28).

The Anteaters, 9-0 on the season, totaled 237 total points and 14 first-place votes. Hawaii, last week's No. 1, is ranked second with 226 points.

UCI hosts Hawaii in a pair of matches this weekend: Friday in the Bren Center at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday in Crawford Hall at 5:00 p.m.

USA TODAY / AVCA MEN'S VOLLEYBALL POLL
January 28, 2003 (First Place Votes in Parentheses)
1. UC IRVINE (14) --- 237
2. Hawaii (2) --- 226
3. BYU --- 175
4. Pepperdine --- 170
5. Long Beach State --- 168
6. Ball State --- 165
7. UCLA --- 159
8. Cal State Northridge --- 125
9. Penn State --- 120
10. Stanford --- 110
11. Lewis --- 99
12. UC Santa Barbara --- 48
13T. IPFW --- 47
13T. Pacific --- 47
15T. Loyola-Chicago --- 11
15T. UC San Diego --- 11

UCI Men's VB - http://www.mvball.uci.edu/index.html