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Hilir Henno and Micah Goss finally put an end to the marathon overtime – in a way that was only fitting for the moment.
Henno and Goss delivered a match-winning block to cap off a 22-point overtime in the decisive fifth game as No. 2/2 UC Irvine defeated No. 5/5 USC 25-20, 26-28, 25-21, 18-25, 26-24 on Wednesday.
The Anteaters playing in front of a home crowd of 2,199 people fought off eight match-points in the fifth-game overtime before going on an 4-1 run to close to the match. Henno along with the winning block had back-to-back kills to jumpstart the match-ending run and had seven kills in the overtime session.
Henno in this non-conference victory finished with 24 kills on a .340 attack percentage, including five kills on USC match-point opportunities.
The 2024 National Player of Year was one of four Anteaters with double-digit kills in this matchup between undefeated teams.
Opposite Nolan Flexen led all players with 27 kills on a .420 attack percentage and had eight kills in the final game. Goss also had 10 kills and zero errors on match-best .625 attack percentage, while outside attacker Andon Kiriakou contributed 10 kills.
Setter Joe Karlous had 73 assists and guided the UC Irvine offense to out-hit USC .335 to .331. In addition, the Anteaters in the final game committed a match-low two errors and had a match-best .519 attack percentage.
The Anteaters defensively had a season-high 17 blocks – seven more blocks than the Trojans.
Middle attacker Maxim Grigoriev finished with a match-high 12 blocks. Grigoriev opened the match with seven blocks in the first two games and then added two blocks early in the fifth game.
USC outside attacker Dillion Klein in the loss had a team-high 18 kills. Pin-hitters Sterling Foley and Jack Deuchar each contributed 16 kills and hit more than .300.
This was the first match of a home-and-home series between the two teams. USC after playing in the longest fifth-game overtime in program history will now conclude the series with a home match against USC on Friday.
The Anteaters and Trojans entered this series as two of the five remaining undefeated teams in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.