UCLA
17-8, 10-7
Hawai'i
23-4, 13-4
MVB Downed in Four Sets by Hawai'i
April 07, 2017 | Men's Volleyball
The No. 6 UCLA men's volleyball team had its seven match win streak snapped by No. 4 Hawai'i in an MPSF match played on Friday in the Wooden Center. UH bested the Bruins in four sets by the scores of 26-28, 25-23, 25-21 and 25-18. Jake Arnitz led the Bruins attack with 20 kills, his third 20-kill effort of the season. Hawai'i outhit the Bruins .304 to .244 for the match and won the battle of the block over the Bruins as well, 10.0 to 8.0. Each team recorded five aces on the night. UCLA is now 17-8 and 10-7 in league play and Hawai'i improved to 23-4 and 13-4. The same two teams will meet in the regular season finale on Saturday night in the Wooden Center with first serve at 7 p.m. Bruin seniors – Michael Fisher, Jackson Bantle, Mitch Stahl and Hagen Smith will be honored after the match.
UCLA moved to a 6-4 lead to start the first set after a kill by Christian Hessenauer. UH came back to even the score at 8-all and then took an 11-14 lead. UCLA cut the deficit to one on three occasions after kills by Arnitz, at 15-16, 16-17 and 21-22, but could not get even. Dylan Missry's spike off the block saved a set point and put UCLA down 23-24. A Hawai'i error tied the score at 24 and then a UH service error evened the score at 25-each. The Bruins took their first lead since the early moments of the set on an Arnitz swing at 26-25. UH leveled the score at 26 apiece and then Arnitz delivered his eighth kill of the set for a 27-26 Bruin advantage. A block by Micah Ma'a and Stahl completed the comeback win.
Neither team gained an edge in the early going of set two and battled until the score was tied at 14. The Rainbow Warriors rattled off the next three points for a 14-17 lead. UCLA answered with a run of its own to tie the score at 17. A Stahl ace, the 17th straight match in which he has delivered up a service ace, tied the score at 19. An Arnitz kill made it 22-all and the Bruins moved ahead after a net violation. However, two kills and a Bruin error ended the set at 23-25 in favor of the visitors. UH out hit the Bruins .310 to .219 for the set.
Hawai'i broke away from a 4-all tie in set three for a 6-10 advantage. UCLA closed to 10-12 after an ace by Missry, but UH responded and powered out to a 12-17 advantage. UCLA fought back to make it 21-24 after a kill by Eric Sprague, but UH tallied the next point for the win. The Rainbow Warriors hit .500 for the final set.
UCLA pulled out to an 8-5 lead in set four only to see a series of service errors help bring UH back into the set and even the score at 13-all. The next five points went to Hawai'i. Fisher kills cut the margin to 15-18 and 17-21 but were not enough and the Bruins fell 18-25. UCLA hit .095 for the set with seven attack errors.
Missry, who recorded a couple of aces, had eight kills, Ma'a seven and Stahl six with three block assists. JT Hatch had nine digs. Smith finished with a team-high 10 digs to go with four blocks and three kills. The Bruins loss combined with a UC Irvine win over Stanford clinched the fourth seed into the MPSF playoffs for UCI and the third seed for Hawai'i. UC Irvine will host No. 5 seed UCLA in a quarterfinal MPSF playoff match at 7:00 p.m. next Saturday (Apr. 15).
