Box Score

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team saw its hopes to host a playoff match take one step back in a straight-set loss to UC Santa Barbara, 30-27, 30-25, 30-28 Friday night in the first of two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches at Robertson Gym.

The Warriors (17-9, 13-8 MPSF) needed to win both matches in the series to guarantee homecourt advantage in the first round of the MPSF Tournament. Instead, UH will need to win on Saturday along with a loss by either Cal State Northridge or Pepperdine to earn one of the league's top four spots.

The Gauchos (13-15, 9-12) remain in the hunt for the eighth and final spot in the tournament and will need to win on Saturday coupled with a loss by UC Irvine. 

The match was a showdown between the top two kill leaders in the MPSF. UH opposite Jonas Umlauft had a match-high 21 kills while UCSB's Jeff Menzel tallied a team-high 16 kills. Umlauft was the only UH hitter with double figure kills as the next highest was Joshua Walker's nine and Steven Grgas' eight. Umlauft also tied his career high with five blocks.

Along with Menzel, Todd Travis added 14 kills and three blocks while Dylan Davis had 10 kills with no errors on 13 swings. As a team, UCSB out-hit UH, .336 to .232.

In Set 1, the teams battle back and forth until the Gauchos got some cushion at 19-16. From there, UCSB managed to trade side-outs the rest of the way for a 30-27 victory.

UCSB jumped out to a 7-3 lead in Set 2 before back-to-back solo blocks by Umlauft, pulled UH to within 7-5. Moments later the Warriors tied it at 10 with a string of three straight points but the Gauchos answered with a 6-1 run for a 17-12 advantage. UCSB pushed its lead to as much as seven before UH pulled within 21-17. From there, the Gauchos extended the lead back to seven and rolled to a 30-25 victory.

UH got off to a strong start in Set 3 at 5-1 but quickly saw that lead disappear as the Gauchos tied the score at 8 and took a 15-12 lead at the midway point. Three straight points on kills by Matt Rawson, Walker, and Umlauft evened the score at 21. The Gauchos led 25-23 after an attack error by Grgas but Walker's solo block of Travis tied it at 26. Travis answered with a kill and Umlauft's attack error gave UCSB the lead at 28-26. At match point, Umlauft hit out again giving the Gauchos the win.

The two teams play again Saturday at 7:00 p.m. PT (4:00 p.m. HT) at Rob Gym.