RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Matt Carere, left, and Pedro Azenha tried to block UCSB's Theo Brunner in the first game last night.

Road doesn’t
slow Gauchos

Fifth-ranked UC Santa Barbara
defeats host Hawaii in five games
in a key match

There is only one absolute in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball:

Absolutely no one wants to be on the road during the playoffs.

UCSB 3 HAWAII 2 NEXT UP at Long Beach St., Thursday

Strange things happen to very good teams when they travel.

All-Americans become mortals. Solid serving becomes erratic.

It's why the last few matches of the regular season become so important to the teams fighting for hosting rights. And it's why, when there's little separation between Nos. 2-5 and only Nos. 2-4 will host a first-round playoff, any separation is good.

Last night, Hawaii couldn't get the space it wanted and is in the same position as when the week began: tied for third with UC Santa Barbara. The No. 5 Gauchos got 31 kills from Evan Patak in dropping the No. 6 Warriors 30-25, 23-30, 30-23, 20-30, 18-16 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

A crowd of 3,046 (4,360 tickets) saw Hawaii fall to 16-7 overall, 12-6 in the MPSF. The Gauchos improved to 14-10 and 12-6 after 2 hours and 36 minutes..

Pedro Azenha put down a team-high 24 kills and Matt Bender added 23 for the Warriors, who are 3-2 in Game 5s. The Gauchos are also 3-2 when it goes to five.

"We had our swings at it," Bender said. "They're a good team. I made some mistakes at the end. It was the little things at the end that didn't go our way."

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Matt Carere, from left, Kyle Klinger and Pedro Azenha tried to block a shot by UCSB's Adam Ulfers in the second game of last night's match at the Stan Sheriff Center.

In the beginning of Game 5 everything went Hawaii's way as the Warriors took a 5-0 lead behind the serving of Azenha. The Gauchos did not fold, slowly climbing back.

They held off three match points by the Warriors and then put away the only one they needed.

Trailing 16-15, UCSB setter Bart Kowalski went to Patak three straight times for the three points the team needed to win.

"We practice games to 15 a lot in practice," Kowalski said. "So I think we're pretty confident. We really wanted it and we played hard.

"And Evan ... he's the man, he's our stud. He won the match."

At the end, it was the Azenha-Bender Show vs. the Patak Show.

"And that's the way it should be, both teams going to their go-to guys," UCSB coach Ken Preston said. "Evan's a horse. He didn't do some other things well, but he got us the points when we needed them.

"Anytime you're down 0-5 on the road and come back is big. And to come back on the road at Hawaii, in front of this kind of crowd, it is huge. I'm just glad that Azenha's serving run came at the beginning of the game and not at the end."

The Gauchos began to pull away in a tight Game 1 on a play that should have easily gone the Warriors' way. UH's 6-foot-8 middle Mauli'a LaBarre couldn't put an overpass down against UCSB's 6-foot setter Bart Kowalski, giving the Gauchos a 23-22 lead.

A service error by Kowalski tied it for the 12th -- and last time -- at 23-23. Two unforced errors by Hawaii -- a net violation and an overpass of a serve that Michael Kennedy slammed back -- helped UCSB close out the game with a 7-2 run.

As happened in Friday's game, the momentum traded sides with the teams. Hawaii dominated in Game 2 from the beginning, jumping out to leads of 19-13 and 27-19.

An ace by Matt Carere gave the Warriors their first swing to end the game at 29-20. The Gauchos couldn't completely dig out of the hole but did score three consecutive points before Nate Wack served long to give Hawaii the win.

But UCSB's little run at the end carried over to Game 3 in a big way. The Warriors led twice, the last at 4-3 before the Gauchos took the lead for good with four unanswered points.

UCSB hit .389 for the game, helped by Patak putting down six kills with just one error in 13 swings and Theo Brunner added four kills with no errors.

Hawaii roared back in Game 4 on the arm of Azenha. He ripped two of his three aces as the Warriors opened with a 5-0 lead. The closest the Gauchos would come was five, the last at 20-15.

Bender's kill jump-started a 4-0 run that Azenha finished with his third ace. At 27-20, Hawaii finished it off with three points on Bender's 19th kill, a Gaucho hitting error and Azenha's 21st kill.

LaBarre added 10 kills for Hawaii and Alfred Reft 15 digs. Brunner also had 10 kills for UCSB, which outblocked the Warriors 16-10.

UCSB def. Hawaii

30-25, 23-30, 30-23, 20-30, 18-16

Gauchos (14-10, 12-6 mpsf)
	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Kowalski	5	1	1	3	.000	1	2	10
Watkins	5	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Berman	5	8	5	19	.158	0	1	7
Ulfers	5	8	7	23	.043	0	2	6
Brunner	5	10	0	16	.625	1	6	2
Kennedy	5	8	2	18	.333	1	6	2
Nelson	3	0	0	1	.000	0	0	0
Jensen	1	0	0	0	.000	0	1	0
Patak	5	31	11	63	.317	0	9	3
Fisher	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Wack	4	7	0	13	.538	0	0	6
Mansfield	5	0	0	0	.000	0	0	13
Totals	5	73	26	156	.301	3	27	49
Warriors (16-7, 12-6 mpsf)
	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Klinger	5	6	4	13	.154	1	5	3
Carere	3	1	1	7	.000	0	2	3
Beckwith	5	4	1	6	.500	0	4	4
Azenha	5	24	8	55	.291	0	3	7
Bender	5	23	6	47	.362	0	4	8
La Barre	5	10	1	15	.600	0	6	0
Hakala	3	5	3	12	.167	0	1	7
Reft	5	0	0	0	.000	0	0	15
Schkud	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Rasay	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Dante	1	2	1	3	.333	0	0	0
Totals	5	75	25	158	.316	1	25	47

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- UCSB (2): Kowalski, Patak. Hawaii (5): Azenha 3, Carere 2. Assists -- UCSB (71): Kowalski 60, Mansfield 4, Ulfers 2, Brunner 2, Kennedy, Patak, Wack. Hawaii (73): Beckwith 63, Reft 4, Hakala 3, Azenha 2, Carere.
T -- 2:36. Officials -- Dan Hironaka, Ernie Ho. A -- 4,360.