The No. 8 Rainbows let a chance to improve their playoff hopes slip away when the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal rallied to win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match, 15-12, 17-15, 7-15, 12-15, 15-10, at a packed Burnham Pavilion. Stanford (17-3 overall, 12-3 MPSF) and Hawaii (15-8, 7-7) meet again tonight.
"Even though we lost in five, I'm very proud of the way we came back," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said after watching his team's seven-match winning streak end. "We were down, 7-11 in Game 4 and won it with an 8-1 run. That comeback was real intense and that was the good part.
"The first two games were winnable and we got them good in Game 3. I'm real encouraged about (the rematch). We believe we can beat them."
To do so, Wilton said his team will have to avoid the "little, itty bitty things" that cost them in last night's rally scoring Game 5. The Rainbows opened with two "real" points en route to a 3-1 lead. But they gave up three straight points on unforced hitting errors and never led again.
Punahou School product Mike Lambert, who took a year off to compete for the U.S. Olympic team, had a match-high 42 kills. But 33 of the Stanford senior's kills came in the first two games.
Cardinal freshman Andy Witt picked up the slack, finishing with 33 kills as Stanford hit .429 for the match. Both teams had 14 service aces, including five by Witt and five by Hawaii setter Curt Vaughan.
Jason Ring led the Rainbows with 36 kills. Naveh Milo added 20.
Wilton would like to see his middle attackers get the ball more tonight; blocker Sivan Leoni hit .727 but took only 11 swings.
"Both teams were serving pretty tough and that caused both of us to go to the outside more," Wilton said. "We've got to continue to serve tough as well as pass a little better so that we can get back into running our system.
"We had them on the ropes after Game 4 and felt like they were folding their tents. We have to keep the pressure on when that happens and we let them off the hook with those unforced errors in Game 5."
The victory clinches a spot in the MPSF tournament for Stanford, which leads the Pacific Division by three games over second-place Long Beach State. Hawaii is in fourth place, 4-1/2 games back.
The Rainbows conclude the road trip with matches at Pacific Friday and Saturday.