Plenty of Pepp: No. 3 Waves win sixth straight in Hawaii
POSTED: Saturday, January 17, 2009
Moments of brilliance. Not enough moments of being consistent.
Still, Hawaii will leave for its first road trip next week to Brigham Young with thoughts that—despite a breakdown in passing at key times—the Warriors more than held their own against No. 3 Pepperdine.
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Freshman hitter Steven Hunt shattered his career high with 24 kills and junior middles Steven Grgas and Matt Rawson turned in career highs of 13 and 10 kills in a 30-27, 30-22, 27-30, 30-26 loss to the Waves last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Pepperdine, last season's NCAA runner-up, improved to 3-0 overall, 2-0 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play. The Waves got double-doubles from senior hitters Paul Carroll (23 kills, 10 digs) and Matt McKee (21 kills, 10 digs) while hitting .419.
“;I feel good about our trip,”; Rawson said. “;We just need to be more consistent with our passing. They couldn't stop the middles when we passed well.
“;Our problems came when our passing broke down. We need to go back in the gym and keep working hard on that.”;
Hawaii allowed Pepperdine to go on runs that eventually proved the difference.
The Warriors appeared to be on their way toward evening the match in Set 2, taking leads of 14-9 and 16-13. At 17-15, the Waves went on a 5-0 run to take the lead for good at 20-17.
Down 0-2, Hawaii put together an impressive rally after trailing 7-2 and 11-8. Hunt had six kills and an ace that put the Warriors up 24-23. Kills by Grgas and Gus Tuaniga extended it to 26-23 and the Waves got no closer than 26-24.
The Warriors gained set point at 29-24 but needed three swings to finish it out, finally ending it when Tyler Jaynes hit wide.
Hawaii made things very interesting at the end of Set 4. Pepperdine pulled away from 19-17 to 29-22 before the Warriors held off four match points, closing to 29-26 behind the serving of senior setter Sean Carney.
Pepperdine called timeout after Carney had served three straight. His fourth serve went long to end the match after 2 hours and 26 minutes.
“;My thoughts? I thought I'd keep serving until it was 29-29 and then we'd win in five,”; said Carney, who had 56 assists to go with 13 digs. “;I thought we were going to win.
“;It was just the little things, the bad runs that cost us again. We need to be more consistent.
“;It was really good to see our middles do so well. I give them all the credit. I was just throwing the balls up and they were putting them down.”;
As opposed to Thursday night, when the Waves outblocked the Warriors 17.5-7, the difference was 8-5.5 last night.
“;They're huge,”; said Grgas, who was in on three blocks last night. “;But they had to respect our middles, which opened things up for our outsides.
“;I'm really proud of everyone tonight. Sean really ran the middle well and, if we can keep doing that, teams will have to keep guessing what we're going to do.”;
Hawaii travels to No. 10 BYU (1-3, 0-0) for matches Thursday and Friday.
Note
Hunt's previous high was 14 in last Saturday's loss to No. 1 Penn State.
MPSF standings
| W | L | Pct. | GB | W-L | CSU Northridge | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | — | 5-0 |
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| Pepperdine | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | — | 3-0 |
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| Stanford | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 1/2 | 4-1 |
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| Long Beach State | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 1/2 | 2-2 |
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| UC Irvine | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 4-2 |
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| UCLA | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 2-3 |
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| USC | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1 | 3-1 |
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| BYU | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1 | 1-3 |
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| Pacific | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 1/2 | 2-4 |
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| UC San Diego | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 1/2 | 1-3 |
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| UC Santa Barbara | 0 | 2 | .000 | 2 | 2-3 |
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| Hawaii | 0 | 2 | .000 | 2 | 1-4 |
Yesterday
UCLA def. UC Santa Barbara, 33-31, 30-28, 30-28
CSU Northridge def. UC Irinve, 25 -30, 30-26, 30-27, 0-5
Long Beach State def. UC San Diego, 30-26, 30-26, 32-30
Pacific def. UC Santa Cruz, 29-31, 30-28, 30-27, 28-30, 15-8
Stanford def. Ohio State, 30-28, 30-26, 36-34
USC def. Hope International, 30-17 30-22, 30-23
Today
Lewis at BYU
Stanford at Ball State
Pepperdine def. Hawaii
30-27, 30-22, 27-30, 30-26
Waves (3-0, 2-0)
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | pts |
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| Jaynes | 4 | 6 | 1 | 12 | .417 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7.0 |
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| Santos | 4 | 7 | 1 | 11 | .545 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 9.5 |
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| Riecks | 3 | 7 | 2 | 19 | .263 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 |
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| McKee | 4 | 21 | 4 | 36 | .472 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 21.5 |
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| Crider | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3.0 |
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| Carroll | 4 | 23 | 4 | 45 | .422 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 24.5 |
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| Grubbs | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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| Pedersen | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
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| Schirripa | 4 | 5 | 1 | 11 | .364 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7.5 | |
| Totals | 4 | 70 | 13 | 136 | .419 | 1 | 14 | 3 | 81.0 |
Warriors (1-4, 0-2)
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | pts |
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| Rawson | 4 | 10 | 4 | 22 | .273 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11.5 |
| Grgas | 4 | 13 | 0 | 18 | .722 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 15.5 |
| Hunt | 4 | 24 | 9 | 49 | .306 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 26.5 |
| Carney | 4 | 4 | 0 | 5 | .800 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 6.0 |
| Tuaniga | 4 | 9 | 5 | 29 | .138 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10.5 |
| Dyer | 3 | 6 | 5 | 29 | .034 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 7.0 |
| Walker | 1 | 4 | 3 | 11 | .091 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.5 |
| Cervantes | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| China | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 4 | 70 | 26 | 163 | .270 | 46 | 1 | 8 | 81.5 |
Key—s: sets played; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills + blocks + aces)
Aces—Pepperdine (3): Schirripa 2, Pedersen. Hawaii (6): Hunt 2, Rawson, Grgas, Carney, Tuaniga. Assists—Pepperdine (67): Crider 62, Santos 2, Grubbs 2, Jaynes. Hawaii (65): Carney 56, Cervantes 5, Rawson 3, Hunt.
T—2:26. Officials—Dan Hironaka, Wayne Lee. A—1,305.
