And Then There Were None

UC Irvine needed all five sets, but they handed Grand Canyon their first loss of the season.

Anteaters ate well last night. |T.J. Breshears/VBelo

The Outrigger Invitational got off to a thrilling start yesterday! UC Irvine, behind Hilir Henno's 29 kills, is now the only team to defeat Grand Canyon this season. The Anteaters hit .370 for the match and a red-hot .643 in the decisive fifth set. It would be a shame not to mention the fourth set that featured 23 tie scores and 6 lead changes. This is everything we could have hoped for to open the Outrigger.

One of the secrets to the Anteater's success was keeping Camden Gianni in check. Gianna had just 12 kills in five sets. More importantly, he also had 11 hitting errors and hit .017 for the match. The last time Gianni had double-digit hitting errors was February 18, 2021, at BYU (79 matches!). There is definitely more to the game plan, but minimizing Gianni's impact is surely on Hawaii's notes for today.

Since we are talking about the Outrigeer, I figured I would make the same chart that I made for the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge. Here is a quick look at polls and national stats rankings for the four teams competing this weekend in Hawaii.

From a glance, this tournament has a ton of hitting strength and blocking. That is a recipe for some exciting plays. I can’t wait for day two to kick off.

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Match Recaps

Outrigger Invitational

UC Irvine (45%) def. Grand Canyon (55%)
3-2 (25-21, 19-25, 24-26, 29-27, 15-6)

Hawai'i (91%) def. Lewis (9%)
3-0 (25-9, 25-18, 25-21)

Non-conference

Pepperdine (57%) def. Belmont Abbey (43%)
3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-20)

Lindenwood (68%) def. Erskine (32%)
3-1 (25-14, 25-21, 22-25, 25-19)

Fort Valley State (50%) def. Emmanuel (50%)
3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-19)

Mount Vernon Nazarene (3%) def. North Greenville (97%)
3-1 (25-23, 18-25, 25-17, 25-23)

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Match Projections

Big West

UC Santa Barbara (7%) vs Long Beach (93%)

EIVA

NJIT (28%) vs George Mason (72%)

MPSF

BYU (47%) vs Stanford (53%)

SIAC

Edward Waters (86%) vs Kentucky State (14%)

Morehouse (4%) vs Fort Valley State (96%)

Benedict (19%) vs Central State (81%)

Benedict (19%) vs Central State (81%)

Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge

Penn State (30%) vs UCLA (70%)

Ohio State (64%) vs Southern California (36%)

Outrigger Invitational

Lewis (21%) vs UC Irvine (79%)

Grand Canyon (24%) vs Hawai'i (76%)

Non-conference

Harvard (76%) vs Merrimack (24%)

Barton (22%) vs Long Island (78%)

Emmanuel (74%) vs Talladega College (26%)

Campbellsville (30%) vs Lees-McRae (70%)

Pepperdine (72%) vs North Greenville (28%)

Sacred Heart (79%) vs St. Thomas Aquinas (21%)

Quincy (26%) vs Maryville (74%)

Tusculum (8%) vs Daemen (92%)

Erskine (24%) vs McKendree (76%)

Saint Xavier (5%) vs Concordia (95%)