Box Score

HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team's struggles continued in a 27-30, 32-30, 41-39, 30-26 loss to 14^th-ranked UC Santa Barbara in the first of two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches Thursday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

 

The Warriors (3-11, 2-9 MPSF) featured four players in double figure kills, including career-high performances by Joshua Walker (30), Steven Grgas (15), and Jarrod Lofy (12). Walker slammed his 30 kills in 62 swings while Grgas, who started his first match this season at outside hitter, had 15 kills in 32 attempts.

 

Lofy put down 12 kills with no errors in 18 swings for a .667 percentage while fellow middle Matt Rawson tallied nine kills with one error and 15 swings.

 

Jeff Menzel led the Gauchos (5-11, 3-10) with 23 kills. Also in double figures were Scott Slaughter (19), Jake Rosener (18), and Trey Valbuena (15).

 

UH got off to a good start with a 15-11 lead midway through the first set. The Warriors extended their lead to as much as 22-17 before a 6-1 Gaucho run tied the score at 23. After a UH timeout, the Warriors jumped ahead 26-23 with a pair of kills by Sean Carney and a Gaucho hitting error. Walker ended it with his sixth kill. Grgas led UH with seven kills in the set.

 

In Set 2, the Gauchos jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Warriors held a brief 6-5 lead before UCSB rebounded with a 6-2 run to take a three-point lead. UH eventually tied the score at 17 with consecutive aces by Rawson and Nejc Zemljak and regained the lead at 22-21 on back-to-back blocks. The Gauchos answered back with the help of UH service and hitting errors. The teams sided out until UCSB ended it with consecutive kills by Menzel.

 

The Warriors played catch up through much of Set 3. The Gauchos led 11-8 and maintained a three-point lead until the Warriors tied it at 23 with three straight UCSB errors. The teams traded side-outs the rest of the way. The Warriors served for the set six times while the Gauchos had six tries of their own and finally ending it on a block of Grgas.

 

It was more of the same in Set 4 with the teams trading blows. No team had a lead greater than three until a controversial no-call went in UCSB's favor for a 25-21 lead. The Gauchos held on for a 30-26 win.

 

The teams meet again on Friday. First serve is 7:00 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.