WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL
Warriors close season by sending Waves to the road
MALIBU, Calif. » Pepperdine's senior night included an pre-match acknowledgment for Hawaii's lone senior Jake Schkud.
Schkud's teammates gave him a much better going-away present.
The 13th-ranked Warriors, with nowhere to go but back home, surprised No. 5 Pepperdine last night 30-26, 30-23, 26-30, 23-30, 15-13 at Firestone Fieldhouse. The loss means the Waves will be at UCLA next Saturday instead of hosting the Bruins in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation quarterfinal.
Freshman hitter Joshua Walker had 18 kills -- including the match-ender -- for Hawaii (11-16, 8-14), which will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1993.
Schkud added 17 kills and was in on five of the team's 10.5 blocks. Junior Sean Carney had 15 kills and two aces, and sophomore libero Ric Cervantes finished with a match-high 12 digs.
"It was a great win, I just wished it could have happened earlier this season," said Schkud. "We finally found a lineup.
"Before the match, I told (Pepperdine senior setter Jonathan) Winder that we were going to mess with him. Going into Game 5, I didn't know if we'd be able to pull it off."
But Hawaii did, just part of a crazy final night of the MPSF regular season. Long Beach State earned the first-round bye and the top seed when sweeping Cal State Northridge.
BYU, losing the tiebreaker with The Beach, is seeded No. 2 and will host Tuesday's play-in winner between USC and host UC Irvine. Stanford, coming out on the short end of a three-way tie for fourth, has the sixth seed and goes to CSUN for a quarterfinal.
Hawaii will sit back and watch it all play out. The Warriors are missing the postseason for the first time since Mike Wilton's first year as UH coach.
"Last night was a great win and a sweet platform to build next season on," Wilton said after the 2-hour, 18-minute marathon. "Game 5s are so brief and we started off with two good serves in Nejc and Sean. It was nip and tuck all the way but we had enough resilience to get it done.
"It was nerve-wracking only because of our youth. You never know what's going to happen with so many young guys out there. Fortunately, we were good when it counted."
Game 5 was tied 11 times, with Walker tying it for the final time at 12. With Schkud serving, Pepperdine junior Paul Carroll, the top hitter in the country, hit wide and a kill by Schkud gave the Warriors their first match point at 14-12.
Schkud said he was happy that ball was in his hands at crunch time.
"I wasn't nervous," Schkud said. "Coach said just to get (the serve) in, but I wanted to go out on my own terms and went for it."
J.D. Schleppenbach's 16th kill ended Schkud's serve and pulled the Waves to 14-13. It wasn't long before Walker ended it, giving Hawaii its fourth win in nine 5-game matches.
Pepperdine (13-10, 12-10) fell to 1-4 in 5-gamers.
Carroll finished with 27 kills and was in on eight of the Waves' 17.5 blocks. He also had all five of Pepperdine's aces, including three in a 5-0 run early in Game 3.
"We got a decisive win in Game 2 and you knew they'd come back on senior night," Wilton said. "We saw the momentum swing to them and we did a little bit of our imploding thing.
"The important thing is we didn't fall apart. It's a good memory to take into next season."
MPSF Standings
|
W |
L |
Pct. |
|
GB |
W-L
|
x-Long Beach State |
18 |
4 |
.818 |
|
-- |
23-5
|
x-BYU |
18 |
4 |
.818 |
|
-- |
23-4
|
x-CSU Northridge |
17 |
5 |
.772 |
|
-- |
22-6
|
x-UCLA |
12 |
10 |
.545 |
|
6 |
17-13
|
Pepperdine |
12 |
10 |
.545 |
|
6 |
13-10
|
Stanford |
12 |
10 |
.545 |
|
6 |
17-10
|
UC Irvine |
11 |
11 |
.500 |
|
7 |
15-14
|
USC |
10 |
12 |
.454 |
|
8 |
13-15
|
Hawaii |
8 |
14 |
.363 |
|
10 |
11-16
|
UCSB |
7 |
15 |
.318 |
|
11 |
10-17
|
UC San Diego |
6 |
16 |
.272 |
|
12 |
10-19
|
Pacific |
1 |
21 |
.045 |
|
17 |
4-24 |
x-clinched MPSF Tournament berth
Yesterday
Hawaii def. Pepperdine, 30-26, 30-23, 26-30, 23-30, 15-13
Long Beach State def. CSU Northridge, 32-30, 30-27, 30-26
Stanford def. UC Irvine, 30-23, 28-30, 30-23, 30-24
UCLA def. Pacific, 30-24, 30-23, 30-23
UC Santa Barbara def. UC San Diego, 31-33, 30-17, 31-29, 32-30
BYU def. USC, 30-22, 30-25, 30-22
Hawaii def. Pepperdine
30-26, 30-23, 26-30, 23-30, 15-13
Warriors (11-16, 8-14 MPSF)
|
|
g |
k |
e |
att |
pct |
d |
bs |
ba |
pts
|
Grgas |
5 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
.625 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
7.5
|
Carney |
5 |
15 |
8 |
32 |
.219 |
6 |
0 |
2 |
18.0
|
Walker |
5 |
18 |
12 |
45 |
.133 |
8 |
0 |
1 |
18.5
|
Frank |
5 |
9 |
3 |
14 |
.429 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
11.0
|
Schkud |
5 |
17 |
5 |
44 |
.273 |
9 |
1 |
4 |
21.0
|
Zemljak |
5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
.667 |
7 |
0 |
3 |
3.5
|
Cervantes |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
China |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
Komar |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
-1.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
Totals |
5 |
66 |
39 |
148 |
.243 |
45 |
1 |
19 |
79.5 |
|
Waves (13-10, 12-10 MPSF)
|
|
g |
k |
e |
att |
pct |
d |
bs |
ba |
pts
|
Jaynes |
4 |
4 |
1 |
8 |
.375 |
3 |
0 |
6 |
7.0
|
Riecks |
1 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
-.571 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0.5
|
Schleppenbach |
5 |
16 |
7 |
37 |
.243 |
7 |
0 |
4 |
18.0
|
Carroll |
5 |
27 |
9 |
58 |
.310 |
7 |
1 |
7 |
36.5
|
Winder |
5 |
6 |
0 |
7 |
.857 |
7 |
0 |
4 |
8.0
|
Hulse |
5 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
.286 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
7.0
|
McKee |
5 |
9 |
6 |
17 |
.176 |
8 |
0 |
1 |
9.5
|
Liebert |
2 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
-.500 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1.0
|
Crider |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
Grubbs |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0.0
|
Totals |
5 |
65 |
30 |
145 |
.241 |
40 |
1 |
33 |
87.5 |
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 -- Hawaii (3): Carney 2, Schkud. Pepperdine (5): Carroll 5. Assists -- Hawaii (65): Zemljak 57, Cervantes 5, Carney 2, Schkud. Pepperdine (61): Winder 53, Schleppenbach 2, McKee 2, Grubbs 2, Riecks, Carroll.
T --2:18. Officials --Mike Farish, John Martin. A -- 915.