No. 1 UC Irvine hammers UH

This time, the UC Irvine volleyball team wasted little time in defeating Hawaii in the Bren Center.

The scores were 25-20, 25-22, 25-11.

The Anteaters, who reclaimed the No. 1 ranking on Monday, lived up to it Tuesday, rallying from a six-point deficit in the second set and dominating the third.

The outcome was in contrast to the Anteaters’ five-set victory over the Warriors on Monday.

The Anteaters improved to 14-3 overall and 11-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Warriors fell to 5-10 and 4-8.

It has been a season of extremes for the Warriors. Of their 15 matches, nine have gone five sets (a program record since rally scoring was implemented in 2001) and four were sweeps.

The Warriors appeared to have played to exhaustion in the final of a four-match trip spread over five days.

The Anteaters rallied from six down to tie at 19-all in the second set. The Anteaters then took the lead on middle Scott Kevorken’s kill. UH’s JP Marks then hit wide, opening a cushion for UC Irvine.

Middle Davis Holt slammed a kill to give the Warriors the opening point of the third set.

But the Anteaters seized control — of the momentum and of the set — after that. They scored the next six points, and five of them were initiated with Kevin Tillie serves.

A UH timeout followed by Tillie’s service error slowed UC Irvine briefly.

The Anteaters built leads of 15-6 and 20-8.

Irvine went to its bench after that. Reserve middle Ian Castellana had a block assist at 24-10. Two points later, Castellana ended it with a kill on his only swing of the match.

Once again, the defending national champions got a balanced effort. Tillie had 10 kills, the only Anteater in double figures.

Brook Sedore and Siki Zarkovic each had 10 kills for the Warriors.

Hawaii, which had a couple of players battling flu-like symptoms at the beginning of the trip, return to Honolulu today for much-needed rest.

Hawaii’s next match is March 1 against eighth-ranked Cal State Northridge.