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Middle attacker Connor Campbell put an emphatic ending to a two-match road series sweep for No. 7/7 UC Irvine.
Campbell had a match-winning block to prevent a fifth-game overtime as UC Irvine defeated No. 8/7 BYU 23-25, 26-24, 25-18, 23-25, 15-13 on Saturday in Provo, Utah.
The senior led all players with a season-high eight blocks and helped the Anteaters finish with 15 blocks – seven more blocks than the Cougars.
BYU (7-3, 0-0 MPSF) in the decisive fifth game was held to a negative-.059 attack percentage. The Cougars committed eight attack errors in the final game, including three back-row attack violations.
Setter Brett Sheward guided the UC Irvine offense to out-hit BYU for the match .308 to .168. UC Irvine (5-1, 0-0 Big West) also had three players finish with double-digit kills en route to its fifth consecutive win.
Opposite Nolan Flexan led the Anteaters with 18 kills on a .333 attack percentage, and outside attacker Hilir Henno had 15 kills. In addition, outside attacker Maxim Grigoriev finished with 15 kills on a .367 attack percentage and had the game-winning kill in the second-game overtime.
Flexan defensively contributed six blocks, while Henno had five blocks in the non-conference match.
BYU outside attacker Luke Benson in the loss had a match-high 21 kills. Opposite Miks Ramanis finished with 16 kills and was the only BYU player to have more than seven kills.
Along with the offensive performance, Ramanis led all players with a career-high five aces.