Hawaii takes first of 2 from UC San Diego

It's a season where anything and everything seems possible.

Last week, UC San Diego stunned defending national champion UC Irvine on the Anteaters' home court. Last night, the Anteaters surprised host and previously undefeated Pepperdine.

But for all the increasing parity that there is in men's college volleyball, one thing has yet to change. Hawaii continues to have UC San Diego's number.

The No. 13 Warriors defeated the No. 15 Tritons for the 38th consecutive time, getting 16 kills from freshman Josh Walker and 14 from senior Jake Schkud in a 30-25, 27-30, 30-25, 30-27 victory at the Stan Sheriff Center.

A season-low crowd of 1,163 (2,505 tickets) saw Hawaii (2-4, 1-2) break into the win column in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings by snapping a three-match skid. The Tritons fell to 2-4 and 1-4 after 2 hours and 26 minutes.

The teams meet again tomorrow at 7 p.m.

For just the third time since rally scoring was instituted, the match went four games. That it didn't go five for a third time is a credit to Hawaii's steady play at the end of Game 4.

"We desperately wanted this one," said Warriors freshman setter Nejc Zemljak, who finished with a match-high 18 digs. "It feels good to win this one, Now that the pressure's off, I think we'll play looser.

"And what can I say about Josh. He's Sky-Walker."

Walker was one of the major lineup changes for Hawaii. The team the Warriors put out on the court bore no resemblance to the one they had two weeks ago against Long Beach State. Only freshman middle Keali'i Frank and sophomore libero Ric Cervantes were in their same positions, with Walker getting his first on the outside and Zemljak and junior Sean Carney swapping positions, Zemljak moving to setter and Carney to opposite.

The teams swapped wins in the first two games, with Hawaii seemingly taking control of the match with a victory in Game 3. The Warriors got an infusion of emotion with the appearance of sophomore middle Matt Rawson and junior hitter Jim Clar, both of whom missed the series with the 49ers.

It was Rawson who was crucial at the end of Game 4, with his third kill giving Hawaii match point at 29-26 and, one sideout later, his fourth kill ending it.

"Matt created problems for them at the end," Walker said. "He really disrupted a lot of things."

The Tritons got 21 kills from Jason Spangler and 15 from Russ Hardy. UCSD had just four aces to 19 service errors; Hawaii had nine aces -- three each from Schkud and Walker -- to 18 errors.

"I think the difference was our service errors at the end of Game 4," Tritons coach Kevin Ring said. "We put ourselves in position to win games, then left them off the hook with errors. They outplayed us tonight.

"We just had no sideout rhythm. We'd score some points, then give them right back. We don't need to change much Friday. Just keep the pressure on and find a rhythm."

Note

UC Irvine upset host Pepperdine 33-31, 30-21, 27-30, 30-27 last night. Libero Brent Asuka (Iolani '05) had a match-high 15 kills for the Anteaters.