Service errors doom UH at UCLA

Hawaii serves up 27 misses in a four-game loss at Pauley

LOS ANGELES » Faith and doubt cannot co-exist.

Neither can service errors and victory.

No. 9 Hawaii committed 27 errors from the service line in falling to No. 8 UCLA 30-25, 33-31, 28-30, 31-29 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball match last night at Pauley Pavilion. The loss was the third straight for the Warriors (2-5, 2-3), while the Bruins (4-6, 2-5) won at home for the first time in three matches this season.

"The outcome was completely dictated by our service errors," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said after the 2-hour, 6-minute match. "We're just not very good in that department, either here or in Hawaii.

UCLA - 3 / HAWAII - 1 NEXT UP VS. UCLA TOMORROW

"Either you believe or you don't believe. Clearly we lost because of our serves. We need to work on confidence."

Hawaii was as poor from the back line as it was good at the center line. The Warriors outblocked the Bruins 18.5 to 11.5, with senior middle Dio Dante in on a career-tying 11 (2 solo, 9 assists).

Dante also had his first career double-double and tied his career high with 10 kills. Sophomore Jim Clar led Hawaii with a match-high 22 kills to tie his career high. He hit .447, and senior hitter Lauri Hakala added 16 kills.

UCLA was led by freshman hitter Garrett Muagututia's 15 kills and 12 from sophomore Sean O'Malley. While the Bruins also had problems from the service line (23 errors), they made up for it with six aces, including five in Game 1.

The Warriors had no aces.

"We had lots of moments where we did good things," Wilton said. "Clar had a real nice hitting night and (senior libero Eric) Kalima continues to be our best performer.

"We'll continue to work on our serving and keeping our chins up."

The teams meet again tomorrow at 5 p.m. Hawaii time.

The Warriors' lineup will likely see some changes from last night. Freshman Ernie Vidinha came in late in Game 2 at what has become a revolving door at one left-side hitting spot and Wilton said the Kamehameha Schools product had earned the right to start tomorrow.

Freshman Matt Rawson may also have earned his starting middle spot back after providing a spark in Game 4 while subbing for senior Kyle Klinger.

"There were some silver linings in the dark morass," Wilton said. "We did get off to a nervous start, but we snapped out of it. We kept preventing ourselves from doing anything by missing too many serves and not making (UCLA) play."

The Warriors had eight serving errors in Game 1, the final two allowing the Bruins to tie at 21 and 22. UCLA also had eight serving errors, but more than compensated with the five aces. Three of the Bruins' aces came during the 8-3 run that closed it out, including the game-ender when Shaun Nichols' serve landed between Hakala and Jake Schkud.

Game 2 was a virtual replay of the opening 30 minutes ... until the end. Down 29-26, Hawaii held off three game points to tie at 29, then another to tie it at 30.

The Warriors had one swing at winning it when Klinger's kill gave them a 31-30 lead. Hawaii's 13th service error tied it at 31 and UCLA finished it off on a UH hitting error and a dump by reserve setter Matt Wade.

Hawaii controlled Game 3 until late, squandering leads of 14-6 and 19-13 before being caught at 28. But the Warriors pulled it out on Wade's serving error and a block of Muagututia by Clar and Klinger.

Hawaii trailed for most of Game 4, but scored four straight points to take a 25-24 lead. It was tied three times before UCLA scored two points for its first swing at match point at 29-27.

The Warriors tied it at 29 on the Bruins' 23rd serving error and a kill by senior setter Brian Beckwith. But UCLA defeated Hawaii for the 47th time on Clar's serve that went long and Jamie Diefenbach's kill.

UCLA def. Hawaii 30-25, 33-31, 28-30, 31-29

Warriors (2-5, 2-3 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Clar	4	22	5	38	.447	0	1	5
Klinger	4	5	3	11	.182	1	5	1
Hakala	4	16	7	39	.231	0	5	11
Beckwith	4	1	1	2	.000	0	8	8
Schkud	1	1	4	7	-.429	0	0	2
Dante	4	10	2	14	.571	2	9	3
Rawson	1	2	0	3	.000	0	1	0
Kalima	4	0	0	0	.000	0	0	11
Carney	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Vidinha	3	4	1	9	.333	0	2	3
Vanzant	1	1	3	6	-.333	0	0	1
China	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Totals	4	62	26	129	.279	3	31	45

Bruins (4-6, 2-5 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
O'Malley	3	12	6	30	.200	0	3	2
Muagututia	4	15	5	25	.400	0	2	10
Klosterman	4	10	8	26	.077	0	4	3
Diefenbach	3	4	1	8	.375	0	3	2
George	4	7	8	29	-.034	0	4	7
Ker, K.	4	0	0	1	.000	0	2	2
Ker, T.	4	0	0	0	.000	0	0	8
Perrine	2	7	0	10	.700	0	2	0
Bowermaster	1	3	1	4	.500	0	0	0
Wade	3	1	0	2	.500	0	2	3
Chaghouri	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	1
Nichols	3	3	1	9	.222	0	1	0
Totals	4	62	30	144	.222	0	23	38

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.

Aces -- Hawaii (0). UCLA (6): O'Malley 2, Klosterman 2, Chaghouri, Nichols. Assists -- Hawaii (58): Beckwith 55, Kalima 2, Clar. UCLA (59): Ker, K. 33, Wade 23, Ker, T. 2, Muagututia.

T -- 2:06. Officials -- Tony Chan, Kim Pickering. A -- 776.

MPSF standings

	Conference	Overall
	W	L	Pct.	W	L
BYU	4	0	1.000	8	0
UC Santa Barbara	6	1	.857	8	2
UC Irvine	5	1	.833	10	1
Pepperdine	5	1	.833	5	1
CSU Northridge	3	4	.429	4	5
Hawaii	2	3	.400	2	5
Long Beach St.	2	3	.400	4	4
Pacific	2	3	.400	4	5
USC	2	4	.333	3	6
UCLA	2	5	.286	4	6
UC San Diego	1	4	.200	3	4
Stanford	0	5	.000	0	10

Tuesday's results

UC Irvine def. Princeton, 30-26, 30-18, 30-18

Pacific def. Stanford 28-30, 30-23, 30-16, 30-25

Last night's results

UCLA def. Hawaii, 30-25, 33-31, 28-30, 31-29

Pepperdine def. CSU Northridge, 43-45, 30-23, 23-30, 30-25, 15-9

UC Santa Barbara def. USC, 30-16, 30-16, 30-18

UC San Diego def. Princeton, 28-30, 30-21, 30-25, 31-29

Tomorrow's matches

Hawaii at UCLA, 5 p.m. Hawaii time

UC Irvine at BYU

USC at CSU Northridge

Pacific at UC San Diego

Stanford at Long Beach State