Tigers deal 14 aces, but Warriors hang on to win

STOCKTON, Calif. » Hawaii knew Pacific was a good serving team. But 14 aces? The Warriors have all weekend to think about that.

Despite giving up 14 points on service aces, No. 14 Hawaii was able to turn back UOP 30-28, 30-25, 17-30, 30-21 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball match last night at the Spanos Center. It took 1 hour and 49 minutes for the Warriors (5-7, 4-5 MPSF) to defeat the Tigers (1-13, 1-10) for the 20th consecutive time.

Hawaii's first road win was anything but easy.

"We survived ... just barely," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "The good thing was that we could snap out of our swoon. And we swooned very badly in Game 3.

"Our boys were resilient when they needed to be."

The Warriors would like to throw out Game 3, in which they gave up seven aces, including two by Pekka Seppanen during a 6-0 run that gave the Tigers the lead for good at 9-4. Consecutive aces by Jason Borchin helped UOP to its largest margin (25-14) and Seppanen's sixth ace finished it.

Hawaii rebounded in Game 4, scoring three straight to take the lead for good at 7-5. Setter Sean Carney was in on three consecutive blocks to push the margin to 19-12 and the Warriors closed out the match with a 3-0 run, using two more blocks and Steven Grgas' four kills.

Senior hitter Jake Schkud led Hawaii with 10 kills, seven coming in the tight Game 1, in which the Warriors had to rally late. Hawaii led 21-20 only to have the Tigers jump ahead at 27-24, helped by a couple of aces from Clay Ostrander.

The Warriors tied it a 27 on an ace by Grgas. After trading sideouts, a hitting error by Ostrander and Schkud's seventh kill ended it.

"Jake had a nice night tonight," Wilton said. "And our block finally got dialed in.

"We knew they were a good serving team and they pass pretty well, which is a good combination for them, not good for us. I think Jimbo (junior hitter Jim Clar) is going to have nightmares about tonight."

Clar got aced nine times last night but evened that out with nine kills.

Hawaii outblocked UOP 13.5-6 with Carney in a career-high nine and Grgas seven.

Jeff Hendershot came off the bench in Game 2 and finished with a match-high 17 kills for the Tigers.

MPSF standings

Hawaii def. Pacific, 30-28, 30-25, 17-30, 30-21

BYU def. Stanford, 30-22, 28-30, 30-18, 27-30, 15-12

CS Northridge def. UCLA, 30-28, 29-31, 35-33, 30-28

Long Beach State def. Ohio State, 30-27, 30-22, 28-30, 30-27

Lewis def. UC San Diego, 30-27, 27-30, 30-25, 30-27

USC def. Springfield, 30-24, 30-22, 30-18

Monday

Hawaii at Pacific, 5 p.m., Hawaii time

Hawaii def. Pacific

30-28, 30-25, 17-30, 30-21

Warriors (5-7, 4-5 MPSF)

Tigers (1-13, 1-10 MPSF)

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills + blocks + aces)

Aces -- Hawaii (6): Schkud 3, Grgas, Carney, Walker. UOP (14): Seppanen 6, Borchin 3, Ostrander 2, Chen-Byerley 2, Staks. Assists --Hawaii (48): Carney 41, Zemljak 5, Cervantes 2. UOP (59): Staks 50, D'Egidio 7, Chen-Byerley, Pratte.

T -- 1:49. Officials -- John Kinyon, Mickey Matthews. A -- 244.