Clean slate does Warriors good vs. Northridge
POSTED: Sunday, March 07, 2010
Short-term memory loss was a very good thing.
Leaving the disappointment of Friday night's five-set defeat back at the hotel, No. 8 Hawaii readjusted and refocused when returning for yesterday's matinee rematch with No. 3 Cal State Northridge. The Warriors used a combination of better serving and better blocking in bettering their record with a 35-33, 31-29, 30-19 sweep of the host Matadors.
Jonas Umlauft had 17 kills and Joshua Walker added 16 kills and three aces as Hawaii (11-6, 7-5) earned a split in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball series with CSUN (13-8, 10-6). Matt Rawson was in on seven and Walker six of the Warriors' 10 1/2 blocks in the 1-hour, 46-minute victory, Hawaii's first in the Matadome since 2006.
The Warriors continue their Los Angeles road trip with the first of two consecutive matches at USC (9-6, 7-5) tomorrow (5 p.m. Hawaii time).
“;It was a really good effort by our guys,”; Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. “;We had a couple of real bad calls go against us (in Set 1), but our players stayed composed. Winning that first game was huge.
“;It's always better when seeing yourself against an opponent on film instead of seeing them play against other teams. We knew what we wanted to do against them and thought we had (Friday), but then we watched the film and we saw that we didn't do those things. We came back, we served, we blocked, we dug and we won.”;
Wade said there were two keys in reversing the outcome. The first was slowing down the Matadors' 7-foot-2 middle, Jacek Ratajczak, who had 30 kills with no errors in hitting .732 Friday; the second was rallying from a 21-15 deficit in Set 1.
Ratajczak finished with nine kills—all in Set 1—due in part to Hawaii's tough serving that didn't allow setter Matt Stork to run the middle as well as he had Friday.
As for Set 1, Hawaii saw a 13-13 tie turn into a 21-15 hole, with CSUN's 21st point coming on Ratajczak's ace that Steven Hunt shanked.
Hunt was replaced by senior Ernie Vidinha, who had played sparingly in two matches this year. Vidinha answered with a kill and an ace that helped the Warriors pull to within 28-27.
John Baker put down one of his team-high 14 kills to give CSUN its first set point. Hawaii held off three set points, then took its first lead since 2-1 when Rawson and Walker stuffed Baker to go ahead at 31-30.
The Matadors tied it three times, the last at 33-33 on Ratajczak's final kill. The Warriors finished it out on kills by Umlauft and Vidinha.
“;It's not depth unless you use it,”; Wade said. “;Ernie had fresh legs and gave us a lift.”;
Set 2 again went to deuce. This time it was CSUN that was chasing Hawaii most of the way.
The Matadors caught the Warriors at 28 and again at 29 but never took the lead. A kill by Umlauft and a hitting error by Baker put Hawaii up 2-0.
The Warriors never trailed in Set 3, with the Matadors being the ones staring at a 21-15 deficit. CSUN didn't challenge as Hawaii finished it out with a 9-4 run that included Walker's third ace.
Hawaii def. Cal State Northridge 35-33, 31-29, 30-19
| Warriors | |||||||||
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | ||
| Rawson | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | .429 | 3 | 1 | 6 | |
| Grgas | 3 | 8 | 1 | 14 | .500 | 3 | 0 | 2 | |
| Hunt | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | .333 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Walker | 3 | 16 | 4 | 33 | .364 | 7 | 0 | 6 | |
| Umlauft | 3 | 17 | 6 | 35 | .314 | 5 | 0 | 2 | |
| Zemljak | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | 4 | 0 | 2 | |
| Vidinha | 3 | 7 | 2 | 12 | .417 | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| Tuaniga | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Cervantes | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| Morehouse | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dyer | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 3 | 53 | 14 | 106 | .368 | 36 | 1 | 19
|
|
| Matadors | |||||||||
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | ||
| Edwards | 3 | 2 | 2 | 10 | .000 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| McKniff | 3 | 10 | 4 | 18 | .333 | 1 | 0 | 4 | |
| Gaudino | 3 | 9 | 3 | 22 | .273 | 9 | 0 | 3 | |
| Stork | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 4 | 0 | 3 | |
| Baker | 3 | 14 | 8 | 32 | .188 | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| Ratajczak | 3 | 9 | 1 | 24 | .333 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| Wielebnicki | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Baxter | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nua | 2 | 5 | 2 | 11 | .273 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Keohohou | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| Staker | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hippenstiel | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 3 | 49 | 20 | 118 | .246 | 34 | 0 | 14 |
Key —s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces)
Aces—Hawaii (6): Walker 3, Umlauft, Zemljak, Vidinha. CS Northridge (6): Baker 2, Ratajczak 2, Gaudino, Stork. Service Errors—Hawaii (10): Rawson 2, Walker 2, Umlauft 2, Grgas, Zemljak, Tuaniga, Morehouse. CS Northridge (16): McKniff 6, Baker 4, Stork 3, Gaudino, Ratajczak, Nua. Assists—Hawaii (44): Zemljak 43, Cervantes. CS Northridge (46): Stork 44, Keohohou 2. T—1:46. Officials—Brig Beatie, Lydia Godshall. A—532.
MPSF Standings
| Stanford | 10 | 4 | .714 | — | 11-4 |
| Pepperdine | 9 | 4 | .692 | 1/2 | 10-5 |
| CSU Northridge | 10 | 6 | .625 | 1 | 13-8 |
| Hawaii | 7 | 5 | .583 | 1 1/2 | 11-6 |
| USC | 7 | 5 | .583 | 2 | 9-6 |
| Long Beach St. | 7 | 5 | .636 | 2 | 9-7 |
| BYU | 8 | 6 | .571 | 2 | 10-6 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 7 | 6 | .538 | 2 1/2 | 10-9 |
| UCLA | 8 | 7 | .533 | 2 1/2 | 10-9 |
| UC Irvine | 6 | 9 | .400 | 4 1/2 | 10-10 |
| UC San Diego | 3 | 11 | .214 | 7 | 6-13 |
| Pacific | 0 | 14 | .000 | 10 | 6-14 |
Yesterday
Hawaii def. Cal State Northridge, 35-33, 31-29, 30-16
Stanford def. Long Beach State, 30-22, 30-25, 26-30, 30-21
Pepperdine def. BYU, 30-26, 30-22, 30-23
UC San Diego def. Pacific, 31-29, 30-17, 33-35, 30-24
Tomorrow
Hawaii at USC, 5 p.m.
Loyola-Chicago at Long Beach State
Tuesday
Hawaii at USC, 5 p.m. HST
Loyola-Chicago at Long Beach State
