GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY VS. No. 5 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – IRVINE
WHEN: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at 10 p.m. EST
WHERE: Bren Events Center (4,984)
RECORDS: Mason (10-9), UC Irvine (13-5)
SERIES RECORD: UC Irvine leads 6-3
LAST MEETING: UC Irvine def. Mason 3-2 [25-20, 18-25, 25-21, 24-26, 15-10] on March 22, 2016 (Fairfax, Va.)

LIVE VIDEO: Big West TV
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FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason men's volleyball team will finish the west coast portion of its road trip with a Tuesday night contest against No. 5 UC Irvine before returning to EIVA play March 23-24. The match marks the first and only time this regular season Mason will play a midweek match.
 
GEORGE MASON AND AVCA POLL
The Patriots received six votes in the March 12^th installment of the AVCA poll. With another opportunity against a ranked team Tuesday night, Mason holds two wins against top-15 teams this season – vs. No. 14 Ball State (Jan. 28) and at No. 7 Penn State (Feb. 23). Mason collected five votes in the preseason poll and have garnered votes in all but three weeks.
 
THE EIVA AND THE AVCA POLL
With Penn State dropping out this week, the EIVA has no teams ranked in the top-15 for the first time in 2018. Both the Patriots and Nittany Lions received votes and were listed on two or more ballots – the only DI-II teams to fit that criteria.
 
HOMECOMING FOR THE HEAD COACH
Head Coach Jay Hosack spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the UC Irvine women's volleyball team from 2008-09, where he helped them go 22-8 his final season there. Tuesday will be just the second time Hosack's affiliated NCAA team will play at the Bren Events Center since his stint with the Anteaters, with the first being a regular season matchup in 2010 when he was an assistant at Penn State.
 
FAST STARTS, FAST WINS
A major trend with the 2018 squad has been the success they've had the rest of the way after taking the first set. The Patriots are 7-0 in matches when they've won the first set, and have taken the first set in five of their six EIVA matches this season. Among those seven wins, the Green and Gold have turned all but one of the matches into straight-set victories.
 
LEADING THE CHARGE
Sophomore Hayden Wagner continues to lead the EIVA in kills per set (3.47) and points per set (4.33). Wagner is also leading the team with 26 service aces, recording at least one in six of his last seven matches. His ace at UCLA marked the team's 100^th of the season.
 
HISTORY VS. UC IRVINE
Tuesday will be the 10th meeting between the Patriots and Anteaters, and the first matchup since 2016. After a tightly contested match on March 22, 2016, the Patriots built off the performance with a nine-match winning streak for Mason, including an EIVA Championship – the longest conference winning streak in program history. In the aforementioned contest against the Anteaters, Christian Malias recorded two service aces and 12 digs. Mason is looking for its first win against the Anteaters since 1995 where the Ron Shayka coached squad defeated the No. 12 ranked Anteaters in straight-sets.
 
A LOOK AT THE ANTEATERS (13-5, 1-1 Big West)
UC Irvine, picked to finish third in the Big West, has won three of its last four matches, including wins over No. 10 Ball State, Stanford and No. 3 Hawaii. The Anteaters are led by their seven-foot middle blocker Scott Stadick who is second in the nation in blocks per set with 1.29. Junior setter Dante Chakravorti is fifth in the nation in assists per set with 10.54 while junior opposite hitter Karl Apfelbach leads UC Irvine with 253 kills (3.89 per set) and 55 service aces. The Anteaters are currently ranked fifth in the nation and represent the fourth AVCA top-five team Mason will play this season.