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HONOLULU – The No. 6 University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team defeated No. 5 Pepperdine, 26-24, 25-22, 30-28, 27-29, 15-13 Sunday night at the Stan Sheriff Center. UH extends to an eight-match win streak and improves to a 15-3, 12-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record, tying with UC Irvine for first in the conference standings.  

Setter Jennings Franciskovic steered the Rainbow Warriors to a .321 hitting percentage with a career-high 70 assists in the best MPSF performance by a setter within the conference since 2010. He also finished the match tying for sixth in UH's  all-time rally-scoring era list with Sean Carney (2009, vs. USC) and Nejc Zemljak (2010, at CS Northridge).

Four of the Warriors hit in the double-digits, with junior Sinisa Zarkovic leading the match with 20 kills, followed by Taylor Averill, who hit at an impeccable .750 with a career-high 19 kills and just one error in 24 swings. In just his sixth-start of the season, senior outside hitter Scott Hartley hit a new career-high with 18 kills. Additionally, opposite Brook Sedore contributed 10 kills for his 12^th match in the double-digits.

Parker Kalmbach tied with Zarkovic for a match-high 20 kills to lead Pepperdine (13-4, 9-4 MPSF).  

The Rainbow Warriors started off Set 1 neck-and-neck with Pepperdine, making a quick breakaway as Averill blasted out a kill and a solo block back-to-back, igniting a 4-1 run resulting in a 14-10 lead. However, the Waves fired out four unanswered points to climb back and steal the lead 15-14 midway through the set. From there UH rallied back and forth with Pepperdine all the way through, eventually tying it 24-24 to erase the Waves' first chance at set point. However, it was Pepperdine that capped it off with two kills in a row for the win, 26-24. 

After an intense start to Set 2, the 'Bows took their biggest lead, 19-15 after a three unanswered points but were quickly set back after Pepperdine dished out their own 3-0 run to climb back 19-18. The Warriors fought off the Waves rally for rally to follow, with Scott Hartley taking UH to set point after back-to-back kills. In the end, Pepperdine buckled under pressure committing a service error, giving away the set to the 'Bows, 25-22.

Midway through Set 3, the Warriors recovered from a three-point deficit with a 6-1 run to inch back for a 17-15 lead.  The 'Bows held on to the lead  by a thread all the way up until set point, 24-23. However, the Waves went on to tie it five times to follow before committing a fatal service error. After six chances for set-point, Zarkovic finally hammered down a kill to end it 30-28.

UH matched the Waves point-for-point in Set 4, but Pepperdine was the first to reach set point, 24-23 over the 'Bows. Averill quickly responded, tying it up 24-24 before Pepperdine's Josh Taylor answered back with a kill. Hartley and Zarkovic kept the 'Bows in the game with back-to-back kills to finally steal the lead, 26-25, but the Waves were able to tie it two more times to follow before finishing the set, 29-27 with two double-blocks in a row.  

After coming out strong with a 6-1 run in Set 5, UH footed a commanding 11-6 lead. The Waves surged back to tie it 12-12 in the final stretch, but couldn't pull past the 'Bows as they cemented the victory, 15-13 off of a 3-1 advantage.

UH will take a week off of conference play, but is set to return to the Stan Sheriff Center, March 13-14 as they host Hope International both nights.