Walker shares seniors' show
POSTED: Sunday, April 04, 2010
Someone forgot to tell Joshua Walker it was senior night. The junior hitter stole the show as No. 4 Hawaii clinched its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoff berth since 2007 when turning back No. 14 UC San Diego 30-28, 30-28, 30-27 in 121 minutes at the Stan Sheriff Center last night.
The largest crowd of the season (3,529) saw Walker put down a match-high 17 kills in sharing the spotlight with his six seniors. Only one thing could possibly top the emotional postmatch festivities: the Warriors (18-8, 13-7) celebrating their MPSF playoff berth.
The hope is that Hawaii will be back home in three weeks to host the first round, “;but if that doesn't happen, this was the best way to go out at home,”; senior hitter Ernie Vidinha said, finishing with two kills and two aces in playing the last two sets. “;It was so exciting tonight. Even though our offense struggled, we picked it up with our serving.”;
Hawaii finished with nine aces, four by setter Nejc Zemljak. Freshman hitter Jonas Umlauft kept alive his streak of consecutive matches with double-figure kills, finishing with 15; has reached double figures in all 25 matches this season.
“;I really hope we can host,”; Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. “;I'd like to give our fans another chance to see this team.
“;We feel fortunate to win tonight. San Diego outplayed us most of the night, but from 25 on we were pretty good.”;
Indeed, it was Hawaii's late charge that led to the Warriors' seventh sweep of the season. At 26, the Warriors took advantage of the Tritons' 13th service error to take the lead for good.
Brennon Dyer, who moments earlier entered as a blocking sub, came up with a solo block of Jason Spangler, and Matt Rawson and Walker teamed to stuff Frank Fritsch for match point. One sideout later, Rawson finished it off with his sixth kill.
Fritsch, Spangler and Carl Eberts all had 11 kills for the Tritons (8-16, 4-14).
Walker, who became the 12th Warrior to reach 1,000 career kills in Friday's win, didn't take long to start working on his second thousand. He put down Hawaii's first two kills of the match and was rock-solid while the rest of the Warriors were pretty shaky.
Behind Fritsch's 5-0 serving run, the Tritons jumped to a 10-4 margin. UCSD camped out on Umlauft and the wunderkind struggled, not recording a kill until his first cut the Tritons' lead to 15-14.
Steven Grgas and Steven Hunt stuffed Fritsch to knot it at 15 for what would be the 11th tie down the stretch. Umlauft finally got out of negative hitting with his fifth kill, which put the Warriors ahead 28-27.
A kill by Adrian Guthals tied it at 28, but that was as close as UCSD got. A serving error and a hitting error gave UH the points it needed.
The Warriors needed an improbable rally to pull out Set 2. Zemljak's third ace of the night put Hawaii up 13-12, the Warriors' last lead until taking set point at 29-28 on Vidinha's second ace in as many nights.
Guthals hit wide to cap Hawaii's 4-0 closing run and send the Warriors into the locker room up 2-0.
UCSD quickly erased any thoughts that postmatch festivities would soon take place. As they had in Set 1, the Tritons ran out to leads of 6-1 and 11-5.
Hawaii answered with tough serving, with Vidinha hitting his career-high second ace and Zemljak's fourth digging the Warriors out of the deep hole to a more manageable one at 13-11. Hawaii caught UCSD at 22. It was tied four more times before Eberts' service error set off the Warriors' 3-1 finishing run.
Alumni matches on bye week
Hawaii fills its bye week with alumni matches Saturday, the 5 p.m. match between two alumni teams and the 7 p.m. match with the varsity taking on the alumni.
MPSF Standings
| W | L | Pct. | GB | All | |
| Stanford | 13 | 5 | .722 | — | 16-5 |
| BYU | 14 | 6 | .700 | — | 18-7 |
| CSU Northridge | 13 | 6 | .684 | 1/2 | 18-7 |
| Pepperdine | 12 | 6 | .667 | 1 | 14-7 |
| Hawaii | 13 | 7 | .632 | 1 | 18-8 |
| USC | 10 | 8 | .555 | 3 | 13-9 |
| UCLA | 9 | 9 | .500 | 4 | 14-11 |
| Long Beach St. | 8 | 10 | .444 | 5 | 12-13 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 8 | 11 | .421 | 5 1/2 | 11-14 |
| UC Irvine | 7 | 11 | .388 | 6 | 12-13 |
| UC San Diego | 4 | 14 | .250 | 9 | 8-16 |
| Pacific | 0 | 18 | .000 | 13 | 8-18 |
Yesterday
Hawaii def. UCSD 30-28, 30-28. 30-27
USC def. UCLA, 30-26, 30-21, 30-23
UC Irvine def. Pepperdine, 19-30, 30-24, 30-28, 26-30, 19-17
Stanford def. UC Santa Barbara, 30-26, 30-28, 30-23
CSU Northridge def. Pacific, 30-23, 30-23, 30-20
Hawaii def. UC San Diego 30-28, 30-28, 30-27
| Tritons (8-16, 4-14 MPSF) | ||||||||||
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | pts | ||
| Eberts | 3 | 11 | 4 | 20 | .350 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 12.5 | |
| Bannan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | |
| Guthals | 3 | 9 | 1 | 16 | .500 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 13 | |
| Spangler | 3 | 11 | 6 | 28 | .179 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 12.5 | |
| Fritsch | 3 | 11 | 4 | 27 | .259 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 12.5 | |
| Ross | 3 | 6 | 4 | 14 | .143 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 11 | |
| Kaban | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Davidson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sierks | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 3 | 48 | 19 | 106 | .274 | 26 | 2 | 21 | 63.5
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| Rainbow Warriors (18-8, 13-7 MPSF) | ||||||||||
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | pts | ||
| Rawson | 3 | 6 | 3 | 14 | .214 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8.5 | |
| Grgas | 3 | 5 | 2 | 8 | .375 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6.5 | |
| Hunt | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | .125 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | |
| Walker | 3 | 17 | 4 | 29 | .448 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 19 | |
| Umlauft | 3 | 15 | 9 | 37 | .162 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 18.5 | |
| Vidinha | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | .333 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 4.5 | |
| Zemljak | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 4.5 | |
| Tuaniga | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Cervantes | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dyer | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Totals | 3 | 48 | 21 | 99 | .273 | 31 | 1 | 17 | 66.5 |
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—UC San Diego (3): Fritsch, Guthals, Ross. Hawaii (9): Zemljak 4, Umlauft 2, Vidinha 2, Walker. Service Errors—UC San Diego (13): Eberts 5, Ross 3, Spangler 3, Fritsch, Guthals. Hawaii (11): Rawson 2, Tuaniga 2, Umlauft 2, Grgas, Hunt, Walker, Vidinha, Zemljak. Assists—UC San Diego (44): Bannan 39, Fritsch 3, Eberts, Spangler. Hawaii (46): Zemljak 42, Grgas 2, Rawson, Umlauft. T—2:01. Officials—Dickson Chun, Ernie Ho. A—3,529.
FRIDAY'S BOX SCORE
Hawaii def. UC San Diego 28-30, 30-25, 30-24, 30-28
| Tritons | ||||||||||
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | pts | ||
| Eberts | 3 | 6 | 3 | 17 | .176 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9.0 | |
| Bannan | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | .000 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1.5 | |
| Guthals | 4 | 8 | 4 | 19 | .211 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 11.0 | |
| Spangler | 4 | 9 | 2 | 19 | .368 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10.5 | |
| Fritsch | 4 | 22 | 6 | 39 | .410 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 27 | |
| Kiani | 3 | 2 | 2 | 10 | .000 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3.0 | |
| Kaban | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Frishman | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Davidson | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | .000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.0 | |
| Sierks | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Veiga | 3 | 7 | 3 | 11 | .364 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7.5 | |
| Totals | 4 | 57 | 23 | 125 | .272 | 36 | 1 | 19 | 72.5
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| Rainbow Warriors | ||||||||||
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | pts | ||
| Rawson | 4 | 9 | 3 | 18 | .333 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 11.5 | |
| Grgas | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | -.200 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | |
| Hunt | 4 | 10 | 5 | 20 | .250 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 12.5 | |
| Walker | 4 | 17 | 7 | 41 | .244 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 19.5 | |
| Umlauft | 4 | 28 | 8 | 46 | .435 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 29.5 | |
| Vidinha | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.00 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.0 | |
| Zemljak | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1.5 | |
| Dyer | 4 | 5 | 0 | 7 | .714 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7.0 | |
| Tuaniga | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Strotman | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Cervantes | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 4 | 70 | 24 | 139 | .331 | 33 | 3 | 16 | 85 |
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—UC San Diego (5): Eberts 2, Fritsch 2, Spangler. Hawaii (4): Walker 2, Hunt, Vidinha. Service Errors—UC San Diego (21): Spangler 7, Eberts 3, Fritsch 3, Bannan 2, Guthals 2, Veiga 2, Kiani, Frishman. Hawaii (21): Zemljak 5, Umlauft 4, Walker 3, Hunt 3, Dyer 3, Rawson, Vidinha, Tuaniga. Assists—UC San Diego (55): Bannan 53, Eberts, Kaban. Hawaii (67): Zemljak 59, Cervantes 5, Grgas 2, Tuaniga. T—2:40. Officials—Dan Hironaka, Wayne Lee. A—3,528.
