FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Jake Schkud, who had a match-high 14 digs, put down a kill attempt last night against UC Irvine.
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Warriors finish off Anteaters
Iolani vs. Iolani. Los Alamitos vs. Los Alamitos.
Former high school volleyball teammates stared through the net at each other for the second straight night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Last night, it was Hawaii's Sean Carney (Iolani) and Steven Grgas (Los Alamitos, Calif.) emerging with the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory against UC Irvine's Brent Asuka (Iolani) and Kevin Carroll (Los Alamitos).
Behind Carney's setting and Grgas' solid overall play, the 14th-ranked Warriors swept the No. 8 Anteaters 33-31, 30-26, 30-27 in 1 hour and 56 minutes. A crowd of 1,815 (3,044 tickets) saw Hawaii (9-10, 6-8 MPSF) end a four-match losing skid against UCI (11-12, 7-9) in earning just its second straight-set win of the season.
Jim Clar, who didn't play in Friday's four-game loss, led Hawaii with 13 kills and Joshua Walker added 12. The Warriors outblocked the Anteaters 14-9, with Matt Rawson and Clar in on seven each.
"This was a big win for us," said Carney, finishing with 39 assists, two aces and a solo stuff among his four blocks. "Every time this season that we've lost a close match, we've come out flat the second night. We were determined not to let it happen again.
"We really have our backs up against the wall right now. We're going to have to beat some pretty good teams the rest of the way to make the playoffs."
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Joshua Walker had 12 kills last night as the No. 14 Warriors ended a four-match losing streak against defending national champion UC Irvine with a 3-0 victory.
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The Warriors have a tough road ahead -- literally -- with four straight road matches the next two weeks: two at USC, which is also fighting for a playoff spot, then two at Cal State Northridge, currently in third place behind BYU and Long Beach State. Hawaii finishes out the regular season at home against BYU for two, then two at Pepperdine.
At least for the next few days, the Warriors can feel good about this one. Unlike some matches this season, Hawaii bent but didn't fold at the ends of games and didn't panic when UCI made a late charge in Game 3.
Jon Stellar, who had 29 kills Friday, had half of his 10 kills in Game 3 when bringing the Anteaters back from a 27-21 deficit to within 28-27.
"Tonight was our season," said Grgas, putting down seven kills with just one error in 16 swings. "When they made that late run Jake (senior co-captain Schkud) brought us together and said, 'Let's make a pact that we don't let them back in the game.
"If we had gone to a fourth, it could have changed everything."
The one thing that didn't change was the impressive defensive effort by both teams. Asuka finished with 14 of UCI's 61 digs and Schkud had a career-high 15 of UH's 52.
"It seemed to me we didn't have the same competitive behavior," said UCI assistant Mark Presho, a former Hawaii All-American. "It's not that we played great (Friday) but we competed hard. Tonight we struggled, plus Hawaii dug a ton of balls."
And the Warriors did it against basically two different UCI lineups. By the time Hawaii was enjoying a 12-8 lead in Game 2, UCI coach John Speraw had used 12 of his 13 players on the travel roster trying to find something that would work. The Anteaters did tie it at 14 when Anthony Spittle and Kevin Wynne stuffed Jim Clar, but Rawson's kill jump-started a 5-0 run that put the Warriors ahead for good.
The defending national champs got as close as 25-24 and 26-25, but both times service errors prevented UCI from tying it.
An Anteater hitting error and Schkud's solo block of Taylor Wilson gave the Warriors the first swing at ending it. They needed two with Carney again connecting in the middle with Grgas to take a 2-0 lead.
MPSF standings
|
W |
L |
Pct. |
|
GB |
W-L
|
BYU |
12 |
2 |
.857 |
|
-- |
17-2
|
Long Beach State |
12 |
2 |
.857 |
|
-- |
17-3
|
CSU Northridge |
13 |
3 |
.813 |
|
1/2 |
18-4
|
Stanford |
9 |
7 |
.563 |
|
4 |
14-7
|
UCLA |
9 |
7 |
.563 |
|
4 |
14-10
|
Pepperdine |
9 |
8 |
.529 |
|
4 1/2 |
9-8
|
UC Irvine |
7 |
9 |
.438 |
|
6 |
11-12
|
Hawaii |
6 |
8 |
.429 |
|
6 |
9-10
|
USC |
6 |
9 |
.400 |
|
6 1/2 |
10-12
|
UCSB |
6 |
10 |
.375 |
|
7 |
8-12
|
UC San Diego |
3 |
13 |
.188 |
|
10 |
7-15
|
Pacific |
1 |
15 |
.063 |
|
12 |
1-18 |
Yesterday
Hawaii def. UC Irvine 33-31, 30-26, 30-27
Pepperdine def. UC Santa Barbara 30-23, 30-25, 35-33
Penn State def. Long Beach State 30-18, 27-30, 30-26, 29-31, 15-12
Hawaii def. UC Irvine
33-31, 30-26, 30-27
ANTEATERS (11-12, 7-9 MPSF)
|
g |
k |
e |
att |
pct |
d |
bs |
ba |
pts
|
Steller |
3 |
10 |
7 |
27 |
.111 |
11 |
0 |
1 |
10.5
|
Ammerman |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
-1.000 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1.0
|
Reinholm |
1 |
6 |
3 |
12 |
.250 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
6.0
|
Yoder |
1 |
5 |
3 |
17 |
.118 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
5.5
|
Wynne |
3 |
8 |
2 |
14 |
.429 |
6 |
0 |
5 |
11.5
|
Harrell |
3 |
4 |
0 |
12 |
.333 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
6.0
|
Wilson |
2 |
8 |
3 |
20 |
.250 |
6 |
0 |
1 |
8.5
|
Spittle A. |
3 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
.500 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2.0
|
Spittle N. |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
DuFarul |
2 |
8 |
2 |
24 |
.250 |
9 |
0 |
2 |
9.0
|
Asuka |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
14 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
Carroll |
3 |
5 |
3 |
21 |
.095 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
6.0
|
Totals |
3 |
55 |
24 |
150 |
.207 |
61 |
0 |
18 |
65.0 |
WARRIORS (9-10, 6-8 MPSF)
|
g |
k |
e |
att |
pct |
d |
bs |
ba |
pts
|
Rawson |
3 |
7 |
2 |
12 |
.417 |
2 |
0 |
7 |
10.5
|
Grgas |
3 |
7 |
1 |
16 |
.375 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
10.5
|
Clar |
3 |
13 |
4 |
43 |
.209 |
5 |
0 |
7 |
16.5
|
Carney |
3 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
.500 |
7 |
1 |
3 |
6.5
|
Walker |
3 |
12 |
3 |
36 |
.250 |
9 |
0 |
1 |
12.5
|
Schkud |
3 |
6 |
6 |
25 |
.000 |
15 |
1 |
2 |
8.0
|
Cervantes |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
Zemljak |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
China |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
Totals |
3 |
47 |
16 |
136 |
.228 |
52 |
3 |
23 |
64.5 |
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 -- UCI (2): Wynne, Harrell. Hawaii (3): Carney 2, Grgas. Assists --UCI (53): Reinholm 30, Spittle, A. 18, Wynne 3, Harrell, Wilson. Hawaii (43): Carney 39, Cervantes 3, Schkud.
T --1:56. Officials -- Dan Hironaka, Wayne Lee. A -- 1,815.