Box Score

HONOLULU - The University of Hawai`i men's volleyball team notched their first win of the season tonight with a three-set sweep over Pacific in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Stan Sheriff Center.

A crowd of 1,52 (3,161 issued) witnessed the Warriors break into the win column for the first time this season after losing twice at No. 1 UC Irvine last week with a 30-26, 30-21, 30-28 victory.

Hawai`i improved to 1-2 overall and 1-2 in the MPSF, while Pacific fell to 2-4 and 1-2.

With the score knotted at 13 in game one, a UOP service error and two attack miscues gave UH a 16-13 advantage that they never relinquished and went on to win, 30-26.

In game two, the Warriors jumped out to a leads of 4-1 and 8-4. UH led 24-19 then reeled off four straight points and cruised to a 30-21 victory to go up two games to none.

Game three teetered until UH took the lead for good at 9-8 on a Matt Vanzant kill. The Warriors would go up by as many as five points at 21-16, until the Tigers clawed their way back into the game and took a 28-27 lead. UH tied it at 28 on a kill by Lauri Hakala and finished it off by taking advantage of two-straight Tiger hitting errors to win. 30-28.

The Warriors hit a sizzling .367 on the night and held the Tigers to just a .171 hitting percentage.

UH was led by outside hitter Jim Clar who slammed down a match-high 14 kills, hit .400 and added six blocks. Middle blocker Matt Rawson had a big game posting nine kills and match-high eight blocks. Libero Eric Kalima led the Warriors with eight digs, while setter Brian Beckwith dished out a season-best 40 assists.

Pacific was led by Maor Nutkevitch's 13 kills and seven digs, while Pekka Seppanen added 11 kills. Tiger setter Garrett Morales handed out 39 assists.

The two teams finish the short two-match series Friday night at the SSC with the first serve slated for 7:05 p.m.

-UH-