Box Score
STOCKTON, Calif. – The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team rallied for its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation win of the season with a 27-30, 33-31, 30-25, 30-22 victory over the University of the Pacific Tuesday night at the Alex G. Spanos Center. The win snapped a two-match losing streak and improved UH's record to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the MPSF.
The match was a homecoming for UH head coach
Charlie Wade and associate coach Dan Fisher. Wade spent the past three seasons in charge of UOP's women's volleyball program while Fisher was a two-year starter for the Tigers from 1998-99.
After dropping the first set and holding off two set points in the second, the Warriors closed the door on the Tigers and extended the series win streak to 25 straight matches.
Opposite
Jonas Umlauft led the Warrior attack with a season-high 21 kills along with nine digs and five blocks. Outside hitter
Joshua Walker added 17 kills and eight digs and middle blocker
Matt Rawson slammed 10 kills with a team-high eight blocks.
For the Tigers (4-3, 0-3), Taylor Hughes and Florian Gornick were a two-man wrecking crew. Each pounded 23 kills – Hughes on 38.6 percent hitting and Gornick at a 28.6 percent clip – and combined for 13 digs and seven blocks.
The Warriors led for the early part of Set 1 and even held a five-point advantage at 11-6. The Tigers came roaring back with five quick points, fueled by a pair of UH hitting errors, to tie the score at 11. The teams traded leads until the Tigers surged ahead 20-17. UH caught UOP at 24 with consecutive kills by Umlauft and a thundering kill by Walker before the Tigers scored the next two points and sided out for the victory.
In Set 2, the Warriors again jumped out to early leads of 10-7 and 17-12. UH extended its lead to 22-16 as
Steven Grgas was in on two huge blocks of Gornick. A 7-2 run pulled the Tigers to within one at 24-23 and moments later, Sean Daley's ace tied the score at 27. Two points later,
Brennon Dyer gave UH set point but the Tigers responded with a Gornick kill and Umlauft hitting error for their first set point. Walker's kill tied it at 30 but Hughes answered for UOP's second set point. Nicola Vukicevic's service error and Hughes' attack error gave UH set point and the Warriors took advantage when Rawson's kill tied the match at one set a piece.
After UH took an early 5-2 lead and the Tigers tied it at 6, the teams traded points until 22 all. The Warriors scored four straight, capped by a Walker ace, for a 26-22 lead and sided-out for the 30-25 victory.
With the score tied at 11 in Set 4, the Warriors used a 6-1 run to gain separation from the Tigers. Hawai'i hit .448 in the set with Walker and Rawson combining for nine kills, with no errors, on 13 attempts.
The difference in the match was at the service line, where UOP committed 26 errors with only five aces, compared to 13 errors and three aces for Hawai'i.
The Warriors and Tigers play again on Wednesday. First serve is 8:00 p.m. PT (6:00 p.m. HT) at the Alex G. Spanos Center.
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