Box Score

HONOLULU - The University of Hawai`i swept No. 8 Cal State Northridge 30-25, 30-25, 30-26 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball match tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Warriors halted a four-match skid to improve to 4-14 on the season and 4-11 in the MPSF. The Matadors fell to 13-10 overall and 7-7 in the league.

Despite hitting only .172 in the first set, the Warriors got 7.0 team blocks and held CSUN to a mere .079 hitting percentage.

UH led 10-7 in the first when CSUN came roaring back to take a 17-14 lead. But a Lauri Hakala kill and three-straight attack errors by the Matadors put UH back on top 18-17. CSUN came back to tie it at 19, but UH reeled off four unanswered points on a service error, two attack errors and another kill by Hakala. UH maintained the four-point lead and sealed it on a triple block by Brian Beckwith, Dio Dante and Matt Vanzant, 30-25.

In set two, the two teams played sideout until tied at eight. Then UH took advantage of a CSUN service error and two attack errors to build an 11-8 cushion and never relinquished the lead the rest of the way duplicating the first set score, 30-25.

Hakala slammed down a kill to give the Warriors a 7-6 lead in set three and UH extended the margin to as many as six to pull off the three-set sweep, 30-26.

Hakala posted a match-high 16 kills and hit a whopping .516 on the night, the highest hitting percentage turned in by a Warrior this season. Vanzant added 11 kills. As a team, UH hit .267 with 31 digs and 11.5 blocks.

Cal State Northridge was led by Dan Rhodes' 15 kills with Eric Vance contributing 14. CSUN hit .219 collectively with 33 digs and 2.0 team blocks.

The two teams complete the two-match series Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at the SSC.

-UH-