There is a saying in Slovene, Nejc Zemljak's native language, regarding srece (luck).

“;It goes to the brave,”; Hawaii's junior setter said.

In other words, no guts, no glory.

Even though his previous serve had gone into the net—and the serves of the two teammates before him also had been errors—Zemljak wasn't thinking about “;just”; keeping his serve in on the Warriors' third match point Saturday night against Pepperdine. As he had in every match he had ever played, Zemljak's thoughts were on his toss and contact point at 17-16 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball tournament quarterfinal.

“;Everything that happened before doesn't matter,”; Zemljak said. “;You trust your serve. You don't try to change what you've been doing.

“;Yes, there was a little more on the line with this one. This one rolled over. It was a little bit of luck.”;

And a lot of glory.

Zemljak's fourth ace of the night gave the fourth-seeded Warriors a 24-30, 30-24, 30-25, 22-30, 18-16 marathon victory over the fifth-seeded Waves, sending Hawaii (19-9) into Thursday's MPSF semifinal against top-seeded and host Stanford. A season-high crowd of 5,391 saw the Warriors win a playoff match at home for the first time since 2003 as well as defeat the Waves for the first time in seven matches at the Stan Sheriff Center.

“;I'm not sure if I even know what this all means right now,”; first-year Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “;I think most about the seniors; they've worked so hard and they have a chance to play in some really significant matches, still have a shot at keeping the dream alive of winning a national championship.

“;It's really gratifying, seeing the progress we've made in re-energizing the volleyball community, of giving the volleyball fans in Hawaii a year-round option (along with following the Rainbow Wahine). The fans tonight were awesome, and it means a lot to validate their support with a win.”;

The Warriors fed off the crowd's energy, most notably when down 9-6 in Set 5. Although it wasn't a huge margin—Hawaii had made up ground quickly with serving runs all night—it was big considering the final set is played to 15.

Zemljak's third ace tied it at 9, only to have the Waves pull away at 13-11. The Warriors fought back, knotting it at 13 on a Steven Hunt monster block on Rodnei Santos.

“;I just tried to get a good read, and it was a good time to get a good block,”; Hunt said. “;We didn't want to lose at home, and even after dropping the fourth, even being down three in the fifth, we had faith and trust in each other. We were confident that we'd finish it.”;

The Warriors did, holding off one match point by the Waves at 14-13 then having three of their own. The third was the charm, with Zemljak's 38th ace of the year lifting Hawaii into the semifinals for the first time in seven seasons.

“;It was unbelievable to play in front of so many people. I've never had a game like this,”; said freshman opposite Jonas Umlauft, who finished with 36 kills, one off the UH rally-score record he set earlier this year. “;We never gave up, kept battling.”;

The Warriors were swept by the Cardinal twice in Maples Pavilion to open the MPSF regular season. It was the only time Hawaii lost both matches of a series on the road.