Box Score

HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team had a season-high 18 blocks in a straight-set victory over No. 13 Pacific, 25-16, 25-23, 25-23, Saturday night in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Stan Sheriff Center.

 

The Warriors (10-9, 8-6 MPSF) extended their win streak to four matches following the two-match sweep of UOP and a two-match sweep of Pepperdine last week.

 

After struggling one night earlier, the Warriors used their big block in Saturday's straight set victory. Among the team's 18 blocks, opposite Jonas Umlauft (6), outside hitter Steven Hunt (6), middle blockers Jarrod Lofy (7) and Shane Welch (7), and setter Nejc Zemljak (4) each matched or posted new career-highs in blocks.

 

The 18 blocks was the most since the team had 19 in a five-set win over Cal State Northridge in 2009.

 

On the offensive side, Umlauft led the way once again with 13 kills while Joshua Walker added 12 kills. After hitting .070 on Friday, Walker redeemed himself, hitting .375. As a team, UH hit .325 compared to .186 for the Tigers.

 

Florian Gornik had a team-high 16 kills for UOP (7-14, 3-12).

 

UH jumped ahead 13-9 in Set 1 following a five-point run, fueled by three straight Tiger hitting errors. The Warriors closed out the set by scoring six of the final seven points.

 

After falling behind 4-2 in Set 2, the Warriors scored five straight and held the lead until Gornik's ace gave UOP a 21-20 lead. Hawai'i rallied in the final moments of the set, scoring the final three points capped by an overset kill by Lofy.

 

The Tigers got control of Set 3 with a 12-10 lead before UH's big block took over. Back-to-back blocks by Nejc Zemljak gave the Warriors a 14-13 lead and two more by Lofy put UH ahead 17-14. Moments later, two more blocks gave UH a 23-20 lead and Umlauft ended the match with his 13^th kill.

 

The Warriors begin a four-match road trip at Long Beach State (March 18-19) and BYU (March 24-25).