Box Score
IRVINE, Calif. - The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team faltered late in the first two sets of a straight-set loss to UC Irvine, Saturday, in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament quarterfinals at Crawford Court. Set scores were 28-26, 30-28, 25-21.
The Warriors end their season at 15-13 while the Anteaters advance to the MPSF Championships next week. UH dropped their eighth straight match to UCI in Irvine, Calif., dating back to 2006 while also falling to 0-6 all-time in the MPSF Tournament first round matches on the road.
UH was led by All-American opposite
Jonas Umlauft, who tallied a team-high 18 kills and two service aces. Outside hitter
Steven Hunt had 15 kills, with only two errors in 22 attempts, and hit .591, including 12 kills in the first two sets without commiting an error.
Playing in their final match for UH were outside hitter
Joshua Walker (eight kills), setter
Nejc Zemljak (41 assists, 10 digs), and middle blocker
Brennon Dyer (five kills). Walker finished his career fifth all-time in school history with 1,428 kills, while Zemljak is fifth in assists (3,449).
Carson Clark led the Anteaters with 17 kills followed by Jordan DuFault (13) and Cory Yoder (12). The Anteaters hit .505 as a team and committed only six errors in 95 attacks. UCI also had six service aces and five blocks.
The teams exchanged sideouts for the better part of Set 1 with the Warriors holding a slight 15-14 lead at the media timeout. An ace by Kevin Carroll gave the Anteaters a 19-18 lead. The teams traded points again until
Brennon Dyer's ace put the Warriors ahead 24-23. UCI extinguished three set points until back-to-back kills by Clark gave the Anteaters the set at 28-26.
Both teams combined for only three errors in the set. Hunt (8) and Umlauft (5) combined for 13 kills, with no errors, in 20 attempts. Clark led UCI with eight kills in 13 attempts.
With the score tied a 6 in Set 2, Umlauft took over with four kills and a block as the Warriors jumped out to a 13-8 lead and UCI exhausting both timeouts. But the Anteaters stormed back taking a 18-17 lead with a block of Umlauft. UCI led 20-18 before the Warriors rallied to retake the lead at 24-23 after an ace by Umlauft. The Aneaters erased four set points, including digging Umlauft twice on swings for the set, and won 30-28 following a kill by DuFault.
UCI led 5-1 to start Set 3 forcing UH head coach
Charlie Wade to call timeout. UCI extended its lead to 13-6 as the Warriors committed a myriad of errors. UH would not go down without a fight, scoring five straight to pull within 13-11 but would not get closer than two the rest of the way.
Due to the scheduling conflict with UCI's primary homecourt the Bren Center, the teams were forced to play in Crawford Court which seats only 800 and a low roof caused numerous problems on both sides of the net.
-UH-