Warriors march past Loyola

March came in very much like a lion for the Hawaii men's volleyball team last night. And the new month felt good.

The Warriors, at home for the first time in nearly three weeks, celebrated their return to the Stan Sheriff Center with their first sweep of the season.

Led by Jim Clar's 17 kills and a revived defense, Hawaii roared past No. 12 Loyola-Chicago 30-18, 30-25, 30-24 last night in 106 minutes.

"As soon as the game was over we said, 'Wow, we actually won one in three,' " Clar said. "It felt good.

"Loyola is a great team and we know they'll come out hard on Friday. Sometimes teams have off nights and they had a letdown. They'll be back."

The teams meet again tomorrow at 7 p.m.

A season-low turnstile crowd of 1,010 (2.443 tickets) saw the Warriors (7-9) snap a two-match skid while ending the Ramblers' winning streak at four. It was just the second time that Loyola (10-7) was swept this season -- the other came against No. 1 Penn State -- and the first time the Ramblers lost to a team not currently ranked in the Top 15.

The stunning sweep had Ramblers coach Shane Davis struggling for an explanation. Outside of Ian Anderson's 16 kills, his team didn't have much offense and finished with just three blocks to Hawaii's 15.

"They took us out of the match the first three plays of Game 1," Davis said. "They really took it to us tonight.

"They played great defense and we could not buy a kill."

Hawaii had 49 digs, with libero Ric Cervantes leading the way with 13. Senior hitter Jake Schkud, celebrating his birthday a day early, finished with a double-double: 12 kills and 11 digs.

"Our first sweep ... I think we surprised ourselves," said Schkud, who turns 23 today. "It feels good.

"I thought we played well, put up a lot of blocks. If we can control what we do on our side of the court, we're pretty unstoppable."

Clar's serving in Game 1 set the tone for the match as Hawaii jumped to a 9-1 lead. The Warriors never trailed, using a 6-0 serving run by Schkud to pull away at 28-15.

A 4-0 serving run, this one by Sean Carney, allowed Hawaii to take control of Game 2 at 16-11. The Ramblers got as close as two, the last at 26-24, before the Warriors closed it out with a 4-1 spurt, capped by Steven Grgas' kill.

Game 3 was up for grabs until Matt Rawson -- making his first start in more than a month -- and Joshua Walker teamed to block Anderson to put Hawaii ahead for good at 13-12. Two kills by Schkud and an ace by Grgas helped the Warriors pull away at 21-15.

As in Game 2, the Ramblers rallied within two, the last at 25-23, only to have a kill by Walker jump-start a 5-1 closing run, capped by Grgas' solo stuff of George Kamberos.

"I figured I'd go up for another one," Grgas said of the last of six blocks. "I knew that if we could win that first game, we'd do well the rest of the way. Winning that first one is crucial.

"We were on with our serves, our blocks ... we needed this one."

Joe Guntli was the only other Rambler with more than two kills, putting down nine, as the team hit .025. Loyola had no blocks in Game 3 while Hawaii had nine.

Rawson finished with eight block assists and Schkud five.

Note

The night began with a moment of silence to mark the passing of former Warrior David Tang (1995-96). The Mid-Pacific graduate was undergoing cancer treatment on the mainland.

Hawaii def. Loyola-Chicago

30-18, 30-25, 30-24

RAMBLERS (10-7, 4-2 MIVA)

	g	k	e	att	pct	d	bs	ba	pts
Kamberos	3	2	7	25	-.200	8	0	1	3.5
Morice	3	2	3	8	-.125	1	0	1	3.5
Hutz	3	2	2	5	.000	6	0	1	3.5
Anderson	3	16	8	46	.174	7	0	1	18.5
Guntli	3	9	6	26	.115	4	0	0	9.0
Lamoureux	3	1	2	9	-.111	1	0	2	2.0
Jensen	2	0	0	0	.000	3	0	0	0.0
Exline	2	0	1	1	-1.000	1	0	0	0.0
Baleiko	3	0	0	0	.000	12	0	0	0.0
Totals	3	32	29	120	.025	43	0	6	40.0

WARRIORS (7-9, 5-7 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct	d	bs	ba	pts
Rawson	3	5	1	10	.400	3	0	8	9.0
Grgas	3	3	0	10	.300	0	1	5	7.5
Clar	3	17	5	35	.343	6	0	1	19.5
Carney	3	1	1	4	.000	6	0	4	4.0
Schkud	3	12	5	29	.241	11	0	5	14.5
Dyer	2	3	3	14	.000	6	0	2	5.0
Walker	1	1	2	6	-.167	4	0	3	2.5
Cervantes	3	0	0	0	.000	13	0	0	0.0
Zemljak	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0.0
China	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0.0
Totals	3	42	17	108	.231	0	0	0	0.0

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 -- Loyola (5): Anderson 2, Kamberos, Morice, Hutz. Hawaii (5): Clar 2, Grgas, Carney, Dyer. Assists -- Loyola (31): Hutz 24, Exline 3, Baleiko 2, Kamberos, Anderson. Hawaii (39): Carney 35, Cervantes 3, Clar.

T -- 1:46. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Dickson Chun. A -- 1,010.

MPSF standings

	W	L	Pct.		GB	W-L
BYU	9	1	.900		--	14-1
Long Beach State	10	2	.833		--	14-2
CSU Northridge	11	3	.785		--	11-3
Pepperdine	8	5	.615		2 1/2	8-5
Stanford	8	6	.571		3	13-6
UCLA	7	6	.538		3 1/2	12-9
UC Irvine	6	7	.462		4 1/2	10-9
USC	6	7	.462		4 1/2	10-11
Hawaii	5	7	.417		5	7-9
UCSB	5	9	.357		6	7-11
UC San Diego	2	11	.154		8 1/2	5-13
Pacific	1	14	.067		10 1/2	1-17

Yesterday
Hawaii def. Loyola-Chicago, 30-18, 30-25, 30-24
Long Beach State def. Pacific, 30-23, 30-20, 30-23
CSU Northridge def. UC Santa Barbara, 30-25, 25-30, 30-17, 30-23
Lewis def. USC, 30-24, 30-27, 30-22
UCLA def. UC Santa Cruz, 30-20, 27-30, 30-15, 30-25

Today
Loyola-Chicago at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
Pepperdine at BYU
UCLA at UC Irvine
USC at CSU Northridge
Pacific at UC San Diego

Tomorrow
Pepperdine at BYU
Stanford at Long Beach State