Henno spearheads No. 5/5 UC Irvine to comeback win against No. 1/1 Grand Canyon

Hilir Henno had a career-best performance to knock off the top team in the nation.

The outside attacker led all players with a career-high 29 kills on a .406 attack percentage as No. 5/5 UC Irvine rallied to beat No. 1/1 Grand Canyon 21-25, 25-19, 26-24, 27-29, 15-6 on Thursday in Honolulu.

Along with the offensive performance, Henno extended the non-conference match with UC Irvine (12-4, 2-0 Big West) on the brink of losing.

UC Irvine trailed 24-23 and faced a match-point in the fourth game before Henno had a kill to force an overtime. Grand Canyon (15-1, 6-0 MPSF) was initially awarded the point to the match, but the call was overturned following a successful challenge from coach David Kniffin.

Henno in the eight-point overtime win had three kills and finished the fourth game with a game-high eight kills.

Henno also added a kill and an ace as part of 6-2 run to open the fifth game to help secure the win against the last remaining undefeated team in the nation.

Setter Brett Sheward guided the offense to commit a combined five errors in the final three games and for the match out-hit Grand Canyon .370 to .283. In addition, the Anteaters had a match-best .643 attack percentage in the decisive game.

Pin-hitter William D’Arcy led all players with five kills in the final game. D’Arcy finished the opener of the Outrigger Invitational with 19 kills on a .548 attack percentage.

Maxim Grigoriev had 12 kills and hit .474, while leading the Anteaters with three aces.

Grand Canyon in its first loss of the season had two players with double-digit kills and more than a .500 attack percentage.

Outside attacker Jackson Hickman had a team-high 23 kills and zero errors on a .605 attack percentage. Middle attacker Cameron Thorne contributed 14 kills on .550 attack percentage.

Thorne also led all players with seven blocks.

UC Irvine defensively had four players with double-digit digs against the Antelopes.

Libero Cole Power had a team-high 15 digs. In addition, D’Arcy contributed 11 digs and Sheward and Akhil Tangutur each had 10 digs.