Box Score

HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team put up a valiant effort in a marathon five-set loss to No. 2 Stanford Sunday in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Stan Sheriff Center. The match scores were 25-21, 17-25, 25-19, 34-36, and 17-15.

 

The 13^th-ranked Warriors (1-4, 1-1 MPSF) fended off five match points in a nail-biting fourth set which featured 20 ties and 10 lead changes. UH had seven set points of their own until Nejc Zemljak's service ace ended it at 36-34 and forced a fifth and deciding game.

 

In the fifth set, UH scored the first three points en route to a 5-1 lead before the Cardinal rallied to tie it at 13 and snuffed two match points, the last at 15-14. Stanford ended it with back-to-back kills by Eric Mochalski, the clincher on a dump.

 

All-American opposite Jonas Umlauft led the Warrior attack with 29 kills, following a 22-kill effort in UH's three-set win over the Cardinal on Friday. Umlauft hit just .266 with 12 errors but still managed six kills with no errors in the final set.

 

UH's Joshua Walker tallied 20 kills while Steven Hunt (12) and Brennon Dyer (10) also hit for double figures. As a team, the Warriors hit .310 compared to .355 for the Cardinal (4-1, 3-1 MPSF).

 

Stanford's go-to man was Spencer McLachlin, who blasted 29 kills on .375 hitting. In Friday's loss, he had four kills and five errors before being pulled in the third set. Reining MPSF player of the year Brad Lawson added 18 kills and 12 digs. All-American libero Erik Shoji had 16 digs.

 

The theme of the night was quick starts. The Cardinal got out on top early in Set 1, leading 6-3. The Warriors led 7-2 in its blowout win in Set 2 while Stanford jumped out to a 9-3 lead in Set 3 en route to a two sets to one advantage.

 

In the never-ending fourth set, a phantom touch call would have given UH the win at 27-25 but play continued and the teams traded blows until 34-all when kills by Walker and Hunt gave UH set point at 35-34. Zemljak's ace brought the crowd of 3,568 to its feet.

 

The fifth set seemed to go all UH's way early on. But the Cardinal used its big block – which finished with 14.5 for the match – with blocks of Hunt at 11-9 and 13-12, the latter of which could have put UH up by two with a pair of match points. Hunt served into the net on Hawai'i's first match point and Lawson's 18^th kill ended UH's second serve for the match.

 

The Warriors hit the road for a two-match MPSF series with UC San Diego, Friday, Jan. 28 and Saturday, Jan. 29.