No. 5 UC Irvine sweeps No. 4 Hawaii

UC Irvine junior Hilir Henno hit .679 with a match-high 20 kills in 28 swings to lead No. 5 UC Irvine to a 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 sweep of No. 4 Hawaii today at Bren Events center in Irvine, Calif.

Nolan Flexen added nine kills in his third match back from injury for the Anteaters (17-7, 6-1 Big West), who snapped a 15-match losing streak to the Rainbow Warriors (20-5, 3-4).

Alaka’i Todd had a team-high 12 kills to lead Hawaii, which lost the first set by five points despite hitting .452 with no errors.

UC Irvine hit .588 in the first set with 22 kills. Henno had eight of those kills and setter Brett Sheward had 17 of his match-high 34 assists in the set.

Junior Keoni Thiim made his ninth start of the season at outside hitter for UH and had 10 kills and both of Hawaii’s aces late in the third set.

UH ended the match hitting .204 and was out blocked 9-3.

The two teams play again on the same court on Saturday at 3 p.m.