Taylor Wilson Pounds Career-High 22 Kills as UC Irvine Beats UCSB

Anteaters win first match at the UCSB/Elephant Bar Invitational

Jan. 4, 2008

Santa Barbara, Calif. -- Junior Taylor Wilson pounded a career-high 22 kills to lead the UC Irvine men's volleyball team to a 3-1 (30-21, 30-26, 28-30, 35-33) victory over UC Santa Barbara in the first match of the UCSB/Elephant Bar Tournament at Robertson Gym Friday afternoon.

Wilson recorded a match and career-high 22 kills to go with a career-best seven blocks, three aces and seven digs. Freshman Jordan DuFault had a career-high 14 kills, while freshman Cory Yoder posted a career-best 13 kills. Senior Aaron Harrell hit .769 on 11 kills in 13 attempts and only one error, the 13th best hitting performance by an Anteater all-time. Senior middle blocker Brett Kohout pitched in a career best seven kills and six blocks. Libero Brent Asuka had a match-high 12 digs, while freshman Anthony Spittle recorded a career-high 57 assists, six digs and three blocks.

Jeff Menzel led UCSB with 21 kills, while Sam Moisenco added 12 kills in the loss.

UCI trailed 20-17 in game three, before scoring four straight on consecutive Gaucho hitting errors to take a 21-20 advantage. UCI continued to lead 28-26 before UCSB would score four unanswered (30-38) and force a fourth game.

With game four tied at 33-33, a UCSB hitting error was followed by a kill by Jordan DuFault to win the game, 35-33 and the match 3-1.

Fifth-ranked UCI improves to 2-0 while No. 14 UCSB opens the year 0-1. The defending national champions will take on Stanford at 7:00 p.m. in the Thunderdome. No. 13 Stanford upset No. 7 Cal State Northridge, 3-1 (30-27, 30-25, 28-30, 32-30) in their first match of the day.