Hawaii's Kyle Klinger went up for a kill next to teammate Brian Beckwith and in front of Pepperdine's Andy Hein.
Waves topple Hawaii
Pepperdine leaves the Warriors
complaining about execution
and officiating
And you thought the Hawaii basketball team had problems closing out games?
It is obviously contagious.
The Warrior volleyball team crashed and burned badly last night as well.
No. 2 Hawaii had a shot at sweeping No. 3 Pepperdine, taking 28-26 leads in both Games 2 and 3 after winning Game 1. Instead, the Warriors couldn't hold off the Waves.
John Parfitt had 21 kills and Pepperdine had all of its 13.5 blocks come in the final three games to knock off Hawaii 22-30, 32-30, 30-28, 30-19 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
A season-high crowd of 4,301 (5,449 tickets issued) saw Hawaii fall to 11-4 overall, 9-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Pepperdine, which has played no nonconference matches, improved its MPSF record to a league-best 12-1.
The Warriors left with a sour taste in their mouths after coming so close to tasting victory. A number of controversial calls went against UH -- plays the Warriors felt swung the momentum.
"It was a close game and the referees gave them the game," said UH senior opposite Pedro Azenha, who had a team-high 19 kills. "I know it seems like I'm crying, but there were two to three terrible calls in Game 2 and in Game 3. We had control of most of Game 2 and Game 3. They were not even bad calls, they were terrible calls, the worst in my 12 years of volleyball.
"We were very frustrated after Game 3 and it was psychological. We have to work on that. The match was won in the second and third game and we had to not only beat Pepperdine, we had to beat the referees, too."
Hawaii had done a good job of not giving up runs of points to Pepperdine until late in Games 2 and 3. In Game 2, the Warriors led 27-22 only to see the Waves close to 27-26 behind the serving of Tanner Sutherland.
Hawaii was two points away from taking a 2-0 lead when Sean Rooney got hot.
Rooney, who had 28 kills Wednesday, put down two to give the Waves their first swing at the game. The Warriors held off two attempts but not a third as a kill by Rooney and a hitting error by Jose Delgado evened the match at 1-1.
Hawaii's Matt Bender celebrated a point during last night's match against Pepperdine.
Game 4 was never close, with the Waves using a 7-0 run to jump out to a 10-3 lead. Pepperdine never looked back in topping Hawaii for the second time.
The game included a yellow card, and point, assessed to libero Alfred Reft, who argued that he had dug a ball that was ruled a kill. It was one of several questionable calls to go against the Warriors.
Matt Bender added 18 kills for Hawaii. Mauli'a LaBarre finished with 11, but just three after Game 2.
John Mayer managed 16 kills, Rooney 15 and Andy Hein 13 for Pepperdine.
"After the first game we got back together and fought really hard," Pepperdine freshman setter Jonathan Winder said. "This is huge for us, puts us in great position for the MPSF tournament and the final four. To come in and beat Hawaii on the road twice is huge.
"Everybody chipped in."
The Warriors were in control in Game 1 from the opening serve and began their separation early. Hawaii was hitting .700 (seven kills, no errors, 10 attempts) when Pepperdine called its first timeout, trailing 9-5; the Warriors didn't have a hitting error until Azenha grazed the antenna on an attempt, bringing the Waves to within 16-11.
Kills by Azenha and Bender gave Hawaii game point at 29-22 and Parfitt hit into the net to end it.
Klinger had six of his eight kills after Game 2. He had none in Game 4 as Hawaii's middle attack vanished.
"I don't know what happened," Klinger said. "We need to make the big plays at the end. It seems we didn't do that in this series.
"Our team has a lot of heart. I know we'll pull out of it. It seemed like up to 27, 28, we didn't make the big play. They stole some games from us, we should have won Games 2 and 3."
Hawaii will host Ball State in nonconference matches next Friday and Saturday.
Pepperdine def. Hawaii
22-30, 32-30, 30-28, 30-19
Waves (12-1, 12-1 mpsf) g k e att pct. bs ba d Hein 4 13 2 15 .733 0 2 0 Mayer 4 16 3 25 .520 0 6 7 Rooney 4 15 3 35 .343 1 4 3 Hulse 4 8 0 10 .800 0 9 0 Winder 4 0 0 0 .000 0 3 1 Parfitt 4 21 4 34 .500 0 1 2 Ka 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 12 Sutherland 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Grobe 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 4 73 12 119 .513 1 25 26 Warriors (11-4, 9-3 MPSF) g k e att pct. bs ba d Klinger 4 8 2 12 .500 0 4 2 Delgado 4 9 4 19 .263 0 0 3 Beckwith 4 1 0 1 1.000 0 1 2 Azenha 4 19 7 37 .324 0 2 3 Bender 4 18 6 33 .364 1 2 6 La Barre 4 11 2 17 .529 0 0 0 Hakala 1 1 1 2 .000 0 0 0 Carere 2 0 2 2 -1.000 0 0 2 Reft 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Schkud 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Rasay 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 67 24 123 .350 1 9 28 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- PU (2): Hein, Mayer. Hawaii (4): Klinger 3, Delgado. Assists -- PU (70): Winder 68, Rooney, Ka. Hawaii (61): Beckwith 47, Rasay 8, Delgado 2, Azenha 2, Reft 2.
T -- 2:06. Officials -- Ernie Ho, Dan Hironaka. A -- 4,301.
MPSF standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pepperdine 12 1 .923 12 1 UCLA 12 2 .857 16 2 Hawaii 9 3 .750 11 4 UCSB 10 4 .714 10 7 BYU 5 4 .556 10 6 Long Beach State 7 6 .538 11 7 Stanford 7 7 .500 8 9 CS Northridge 6 9 .400 9 10 Pacific 5 8 .385 11 10 UC Irvine 4 10 .286 6 14 USC 1 11 .083 4 15 UC San Diego 0 13 .000 0 15 Yesterday
Pepperdine def. Hawaii, 22-30, 32-30, 30-28, 30-19
Loyola-Chicago def. UC Irvine, 30-25, 31-29, 26-30, 30-26
Penn State def. UC San Diego, 31-33, 30-18, 30-17, 30-27
BYU def. USC, 30-32, 30-19, 30-27, 30-28
Stanford def. CS Northridge, 30-27, 30-27, 27-30, 30-28
Long Beach State def. Cal Baptist, 26-30, 30-19, 28-30, 30-26, 15-11
Today
UC Irvine vs. Penn State at UCSD
Loyola-Chicago at UCSD
BYU at USC
Stanford at UC Santa Barbara
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