Warriors swept on road

No. 13 Warriors knocked out of playoff position by No. 2 Matadors

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. » This was a road trip meant to help Hawaii's playoff situation.

After going 1-3, the Warriors volleyball team is worse off. Much worse.

Only the top eight teams advance to the playoffs and, with just four matches left, the Warriors are running out of time to make a move. They'll host No. 4 BYU twice next week, then finish the regular season with two matches at No. 5 Pepperdine.

Hawaii (10-13, 7-11) needs to win all of its matches just to reach .500 in league play. But there is no guarantee even that would help the Warriors earn a playoff spot.

The last time Hawaii didn't advance to the postseason was 1993, Mike Wilton's first year as coach.

Last night, freshmen Brennon Dyer (12 kills) and Joshua Walker (11) led the Warriors, who dropped to 3-7 on the road.

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NORTHRIDGE, Calif. » The road hit back hard last night.

Playing a fourth away match in six days, No. 13 Hawaii simply had nothing left for the rematch with No. 2 Cal State Northridge. The Matadors, getting 15 kills and three aces from Eric Vance, swept the UH men's volleyball team 30-21, 30-25, 30-28.

The win also lifted CSUN (19-4, 15-3) into a first-place tie with Long Beach State in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings. Hawaii (10-13, 7-11) slipped behind USC and into ninth place, one spot out of a playoff berth.

Tuesday's marathon lasted nearly 3 hours, but last night's contest took less than half the time. After 82 minutes, CSUN extended its school-record winning streak to 13 and improved its Matadome record to 9-0 this season.

The banged-up Warriors -- with starters Jim Clar (shoulder) and Matt Rawson (shoulder and flu) on the bench in street clothes -- got 12 kills from freshman hitter Brennon Dyer. Freshman hitter Joshua Walker added 11 kills coming off the bench.

The Warriors didn't mount much of a challenge until Game 3, taking their first lead at 25-24 when Keali'i Frank and Jake Schkud teamed to block Kevin McKniff. Schkud's seventh kill made it 26-24, but Hawaii couldn't hold on.

A kill by Isaac Kneubuhl (Kamehameha '03) tied it at 26. It was tied twice more, the last at 28, before Kneubuhl put down his ninth kill and McKniff's aces -- CSUN's sixth -- ended it.

"We finished strong, but couldn't quite get it done," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "I sure would have liked to have gone to a fourth game and see what would happen.

"Games 1 and 2 we couldn't hang with them at all. They served even better tonight than (Tuesday). They were just better overall tonight."

Although the Matadors had six service aces last night compared to eight Tuesday, the tough serves made it hard for the Warriors to get into any sort of offensive rhythm, particularly in their middle attack.

Middles Steven Grgas and Frank had just 13 attempts between them, combining for five kills.

Schkud was Hawaii's most effective hitter (.429), but the senior only had 14 attempts.

"For a while, Brennon was all we had," Wilton said. "Their serving really took us out of it.

"And Northridge ... when they're in system, they're a handful."

Wilton made a switch at setter to open the match, going with freshman Nejc Zemljak and moving junior Sean Carney from setter to outside. It was designed to help stabilize Hawaii's passing, but it wasn't successful.

Game 1 was deceptively close, made so by seven CSUN service errors that accounted for nearly half of Hawaii's points when trailing 19-15. Behind Mike Gaudino's serve, the Matadors pulled out to a 24-16 lead and the Warriors never got closer than seven, with Kneubuhl closing it out on an ace.

"I made a decision to start Nejc and it didn't turn out well," Wilton said.

Carney switched to setter for Game 2 and Hawaii stayed close, with a kill by Frank bringing the Warriors to within 14-13. Vance's kill and two consecutive aces started CSUN's decisive 5-0 run.

An ace by Schkud brought the Warriors to within 26-22 and his kill made it 27-23. At 29-23, Hawaii held off two game points, but not a third as Dyer hit long to give the Matadors a 2-0 lead.

Some 30 minutes later, CSUN had its ninth sweep of the year.