WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL

Problems closing out games cost Warriors

From staff and wire reports
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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. � It may not have gone five as it had the previous night, but it certainly felt like it.

Each of the four games between No. 13 Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara went extra points last night, with the Gauchos finally prevailing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball match after 2 hours and 25 minutes.

Theo Brunner put down 25 kills and UCSB was able to come from behind late in Games 3 and 4 to outlast the Warriors 32-30, 30-32, 36-34, 36-34 at Robertson Gym. The Gauchos (4-6, 3-4 MPSF) swept the season's series against Hawaii (3-6, 2-4) for the second consecutive year.

"There's a lot to feel good about," said coach Mike Wilton, denied his 300th win at UH for the second night in a row. "What's not good is that we had sizable leads in Games 3 and 4 and we couldn't finish.

"I thought we played some really good volleyball tonight with the exception of those points at the end."

Freshman hitter Joshua Walker finished with a match-high 26 kills and senior hitter Jake Schkud added 15. Hawaii, with a switch at setter (junior Sean Carney) and libero (sophomore Matias Brizuela), again outblocked UCSB 17-10.

Sophomore middle Steven Grgas was in on seven, with freshman middle Keali'i Frank and Schkud both in on six.

The Warriors led 25-22 in Game 3, only to have the Gauchos catch them at 30. It was tied four more times, the last at 34-34, before UCSB got kills from Phil Mathews and Jeff Menzel to win it.

Game 4 was eerily similar, with Hawaii up 26-22 and 29-26. UCSB held off three game points, going on a 5-0 run to take match point to 31-30. There were four ties, the last at 34, with Brunner and Mathews finishing it off with consecutive kills.

Menzel finished with 23 kills, 10 digs, five blocks and four of UCSB's six aces. Mathews added 19 kills and 12 digs.

For Hawaii, junior hitter Jim Clar had 13 kills and Frank 10. Brizuela finished with 17 digs.

"I thought Matias did a real nice job at libero," Wilton said. "And Sean made good decisions for the most part. I expect we'll have battles for those two positions (libero and setter) all season."

Brizuela replaced sophomore Ric Cervantes and Carney replaced freshman Nejc Zemljak in the starting lineup.

The tone for the long night was set in Game 1, which was tied 19 times. The Warriors had game point at 29-28 but -- in what would become an unwelcome pattern -- couldn't finish.

After holding off another game point, UCSB closed it out with three unanswered points on a kill, a UH hitting error and a block of Clar.

It was UH's turn to rally in Game 2. Down by as many as six, the Warriors held off two game points and scored three straight on a kill by Walker and two UCSB hitting errors to even the match.

 

MPSF Standings

 

W

L

Pct

GB

W

L

Long Beach State

6

0

1.000

--

8

0

BYU

4

0

1.000

1

9

0

UCLA

5

2

.714

112

8

3

Pepperdine

5

3

.625

2

5

3

CS Northridge

4

3

.571

212

6

4

USC

4

4

.500

3

5

6

Stanford

3

4

.429

312

7

4

UC Irvine

3

4

.429

312

6

6

UCSB

3

4

.429

312

4

6

Hawaii

2

4

.333

4

3

6

Pacific

1

6

.143

612

1

9

UC San Diego

1

7

.125

7

3

7

Yesterday
UC Santa Barbara def. Hawaii, 32-30, 30-32, 36-34, 36-34
BYU def. CSU Northridge, 30-20, 30-24, 25-30, 34-36, 15-8
USC def. UC San Diego, 30-26, 30-22, 30-26
Stanford def. Ball State, 28-30, 25-30, 30-22, 31-29, 15-11

Wednesday
Pepperdine at UC Irvine
USC at UCLA
UC San Diego at Hope International

Friday
Hawaii vs. Alumni, 7 p.m. (alumni vs. alumni, 4 p.m.)
UC San Diego at Long Beach State
UC Santa Barbara at Stanford
USC at UC Irvine

UC Santa Barbara def. Hawaii

32-30, 30-32, 36-34, 36-34

Warriors (3-6, 2-4 MPSF)

 

g

k

e

att

pct

d

bs

ba

pts

Grgas

4

6

0

9

.667

0

0

7

9.5

Clar

4

13

9

38

.105

4

0

5

15.5

Carney

4

4

0

7

.571

14

1

4

7.0

Walker

4

26

6

54

.370

12

1

1

29.5

Frank

4

10

4

19

.316

1

0

6

13.0

Schkud

4

15

5

40

.250

6

1

5

18.5

Brizuela

4

0

0

0

.000

17

0

0

0.0

Zemljak

3

0

0

0

.000

0

0

0

0.0

 

Totals

4

74

24

167

.299

54

3

28

93.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gauchos (4-6, 3-4 MPSF)

 

 

 

g

k

e

att

pct

d

bs

ba

pts

 

Menzel

4

23

17

61

.098

10

1

4

30.0

 

Runkle

4

12

3

23

.391

9

1

1

13.5

 

Mathews

4

19

5

30

.467

12

1

2

22.0

 

Klineman

4

2

3

9

-.111

2

0

0

2.0

 

Slaughter

4

6

4

18

.111

4

0

2

8.0

 

Brunner

4

25

4

46

.457

0

0

4

27.0

 

Brockman

3

0

0

0

.000

2

0

0

0.0

 

Irons

2

0

0

0

.000

0

0

0

0.0

 

Rosener

3

1

3

5

-.400

1

0

0

1.0

 

Moisenco

2

1

1

3

.000

0

0

1

1.5

 

McGuire

4

0

0

0

.000

18

0

0

0.0

 

Devany

1

1

0

2

.500

1

0

0

1.0

 

Totals

4

90

40

197

.254

59

3

14

106.0

 

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills + blocks + aces)
Aces -- Hawaii (2): Walker 2. UCSB (6): Menzel 4, Mathews, Slaughter. Assists --Hawaii (73): Zemljak 30, Brizuela 4, Frank. UCSB (84): Klineman 60, Devany 17, Runkle 3, Menzel 2, Slaughter, McGuire).
T -- 2:25. Officials -- Tony Chan, Rick Olmstead. A -- 356.