[ WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Mauli'a LaBarre, left, and Pedro Azenha came up with a block during last night's match at the Stan Sheriff Center.
UCLA gets even
The Bruins end UH’s nine-game
win streak and knock Hawaii out
of first in the MPSF
The Hawaii volleyball team's pre-match introductions included tossing miniature blow-up airplanes to the Stan Sheriff Center crowd. Most crash-landed before reaching fans, much as the Warriors did against the Bruins last night.
The largest crowd of the season (7,305) saw the No. 2 Bruins pull rank on the No. 1 Warriors, 30-15, 21-30, 30-27, 30-23. The victory was UCLA's first in six matches against Hawaii and knocked the Warriors out of first place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings.
Hawaii (11-3, 8-2) dropped a full game behind Brigham Young (11-3, 9-1), which defeated UC Irvine last night. The Warriors also saw their nine-match winning streak come to an abrupt halt.
"Tonight was definitely a serving and passing game," said UH freshman setter Brian Beckwith. "They came out on top on that tonight. Their serving was great and they passed the ball better than we did."
UCLA (13-3, 8-3) nailed nine aces, including two by Chris Pena toward the end of Game 4 that helped make the difference. Pena was booed throughout the match but received leis and hugs at the end from UH fans.
"The boos don't bother me," said Pena, who added 10 kills. "We know what we did wrong the other night and didn't give ourselves the chances we needed to do our best. Tonight we did."
Freshman Steve Klosterman had a match-high 15 kills to lead the Bruins (13-3, 8-3). Kris Kraushaar added 10 kills.
Delano Thomas led Hawaii with 15 kills and Pedro Azenha added 14. The Warriors outblocked the Bruins 10.5-10 but "the team that serves and passes better wins the match," said UH coach Mike Wilton. "We were better the first night, they were better tonight.
"We woke up in Game 2, but I think the key to the night was Game 3. We were up 22-18 and they outscored us 11-3 and we never recovered from that."
The self-destruction began in Game 1 when the Warriors scored the fewest points ever in a single game since rally scoring began in 2001. The previous low was 18 in a 3-0 loss to UCLA in the 2002 Outrigger Hotels Invitational, the last time the Bruins defeated the Warriors.
Azenha's serving got the Warriors to within 12-9 but they gave the Bruins four straight points on hitting errors. It never got better.
Leading 20-14, UCLA ran off six consecutive points, including two aces by Kraushaar. Hawaii changed setters, bringing in senior Kimo Tuyay for Beckwith but only scored one more point, that on a Bruin service error.
Hawaii finished hitting negative-.033, with 10 errors to nine kills. UCLA, which came into the week leading the nation in hitting (.388), had just two hitting errors in finishing at .381.
Things quickly changed in Game 2 with the momentum changing sides with the teams. For the second match, UCLA had no answer for Azenha. It was 3-3 when the sophomore hitter started to camp out on the backline; it was 8-3 when he was done with two points coming off slams of service overpasses and another on an ace.
It was 20-13 when the Bruins, who used all 12 players in Game 2, started to rally. UCLA closed to 20-15 only to have Hawaii go on a 6-1 run.
The Warriors served for game point three times before Thomas finally ended it with his eighth kill. Hawaii had just one hitting error in 31 swings -- that coming when Azenha was blocked midway through the game.
The match continued as a virtual replay of Thursday's contest, with UCLA taking Game 3. Hawaii appeared to have gained control when Azenha put down his 10th kill to give the Warriors a 19-16 lead.
Hawaii saw its 23-20 lead turn into a 23-23 tie. The game was knotted twice more before UCLA took the lead for good on three consecutive points at 28-25, and needed to just sideout twice to win it.
Unlike Thursday, the Bruins weren't thinking about letting it go to five. Hawaii struggled from the start, getting aced by Dennis Gonzalez for the first point and seeing Ryan Woodard's serving error end it after 2 hours and 6 minutes.
"We needed more guys to serve tough for us," said Wilton. "We only had Pedro tonight.
"This is a great opportunity and the opportunity is how we're going to respond to this. UCLA played pretty well tonight, but I think we beat ourselves in many regards. It's a disgrace to beat yourself. Will we let this define the rest of the season or make the changes we need to make?"
Hawaii leaves tomorrow for a four-match trip in California, playing at Cal State Northridge on Wednesday and Friday and at USC on March 8 and 9.
"It was about serving and passing," said UCLA coach Al Scates. "I'm happy with the way we passed. That was the focus of our practice yesterday.
"I thought we set the tone again in Game 1, but we did that Thursday night and it didn't do any good. I'm happy with the split. I wouldn't have been happy prior to arriving, but now I'm very happy after losing that first match. I wasn't aware that we had lost the past five times to Hawaii. It feels good to win."
UCLA def. Hawaii
30-15, 21-30, 30-27, 30-23Bruins (13-3, 8-3 mpsf)
Warriors (11-3, 8-2 mpsf)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Peters 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Gonzalez 4 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 5 Wenger 2 4 3 9 .111 0 3 0 Johnson 3 7 3 14 .286 0 2 0 Scott 3 9 3 17 .353 1 2 3 Klosterman 4 15 4 29 .379 0 3 7 Zemaitaitis 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Pena 4 10 1 23 .391 0 6 2 Shrader 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 13 Kraushaar 4 10 2 21 .381 0 0 5 Jagoda 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Shubin 2 1 3 7 -.286 1 0 1 Totals 4 57 19 121 .314 2 16 36
Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Muise 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Delgado 4 8 5 18 .167 0 1 8 Beckwith 4 3 0 5 .600 0 4 8 Reft 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Azenha 4 14 8 33 .182 0 1 3 Bender 4 0 1 2 -.500 0 0 1 Woodward 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 0 LaBarre 4 4 3 11 .091 1 3 0 Thomas 4 15 5 34 .294 0 4 4 Stanhiser 4 7 2 12 .417 0 6 0 Totals 4 52 24 116 .241 1 19 34 Aces -- UCLA (9): Pena 3, Kraushaar 2, Shubin, Scott, Wenger, Gonzalez. Hawaii (5): Beckwith 2, Azenha 2, Thomas.
Assists -- UCLA (51): Gonzalez 41, Peters 4, Pena 2, Wenger, Klosterman, Shrader, Shubin. Hawaii (48): Beckwith 40, Reft 4, Thomas 2, LaBarre, Delgado.
T -- 2:06. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Dan Hironaka. A -- 7,305.
