JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Dio Dante of Hawaii put a kill past Jimmy Killian and C.J. Schellenberg of Southern California last night.

Warriors snap slide by beating USC in 4

Hawaii pulls USC down to ninth in the conference with the victory

Eight did not sound great.

Not when it meant a school record for losses.

No. 12 Hawaii found some consistency and some pride last night, snapping what felt like an 0-for-ever skid against No. 14 USC. Led by sophomore Jim Clar's 20 kills and a career-high 13 by both junior Jake Schkud and freshman Matt Vanzant, the Warriors defeated the Trojans 24-30, 31-29, 30-27, 30-24 at the Stan Sheriff Center last night.

It took 2 hours and 27 minutes for the Warriors to improve to 3-9 overall, 3-7 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Trojans, led by sophomore C.J. Schellenberg's 19 kills, head back to Los Angeles 4-9, and once again tied with Hawaii for ninth in the MPSF at 3-7.

A crowd of 1,892 (3,156 tickets) saw what sometimes amounted to a Loyola High alumni match, with Schkud and setter Brian Beckwith in Hawaii uniforms and Schellenberg and setter Jimmy Killian in USC ones. In the end, Schkud and Beckwith came out on top, with Schkud accounting for the final two points of the match when putting down his final kill, then teaming with Dio Dante to stuff Schellenberg.

"I'm so glad to pull off the win," Schkud said. "At times, it did feel a little like high school and we all got one win. I knew Brian was going to give me the ball when it came down to the end, and I was pretty sure Jimmy was going to get it to C.J. (on the last play). I was already going out on C.J. before he got the ball.

"This feels good, but it's just one win. We still have to prove ourselves."

That chance comes quickly when heading to No. 2 BYU for matches next Friday and Saturday. Hawaii practices Monday and Tuesday before taking the red-eye flight to Provo, Utah.

"I am so, so happy, words can't describe it right now," said Beckwith, who was in on five of Hawaii's 15.5 blocks. "I'm so proud of my team. At no time during the past three to four weeks did we doubt ourselves. We never gave up. The perseverance was there and it was only a matter of time. We needed this win so bad."

"We still have a lot of extremely destructive behavior and a lot more to work on," Warriors coach Mike Wilton said. "It was a very interesting match and I'm proud of the boys. What was good was we were able to not let errors on our side of the net affect our play."

What affected the Trojans the most was losing junior kill leader Juan Figueroa early in Game 3. He left with a badly sprained left ankle with 11 kills and USC leading 5-3.

"Obviously, we were ahead when it happened, but UH went on a good run to get back ahead," USC coach Bill Ferguson said of losing Figueroa. "We hadn't played a match without him, but I think it was more of UH playing well."

Which wasn't the case early. Hawaii didn't get out of negative hitting percentage until its last two kills, both by Vanzant, that held off two game points. The Warriors couldn't stop a third, with Schellenberg putting down his fourth kill.

Hawaii's best friend in Game 1 was USC's serving, with the Trojan errors accounting for eight of the Warriors' points.

USC cut down its serving errors to three in Game 2, but UH began scoring on its blocks. Hawaii, the top blocking team in the MPSF, had six blocks when evening the match, none bigger than when stuffing Schellenberg for game point.

The Trojans blocked Vanzant to tie it, but Vanzant put down his ninth kill, giving the Warriors a second shot at ending it. Figueroa, the hero of Wednesday's win with his career-high 32 kills, hit long to send the teams into the 10-minute break tied.

With Figueroa, USC was looking very comfortable when taking a 5-2 lead in Game 3. But Figueroa landed awkwardly on his left ankle after his attempt hit the antenna, sending the Trojans' kill leader to the bench for the rest of the night, taking his then-match-leading 11 kills with him.

As in Game 1, the Warriors' offense continued to struggle, not getting out of negative numbers until a kill by Clar put Hawaii ahead for the first time at 23-22. It was tied twice before a kill by Dio Dante and Matt Anderson's hitting error gave the Warriors the separation they needed at 26-24, needing to just sideout to earn a 2-1 edge.

The Warriors again started slowly in Game 4 before pulling away to a 15-10 lead. The Trojans closed to within 22-19, but Hawaii could see the end of the stretch of seven losses clearly, focusing to finish it off.