USC
Hawai'i
Hawaii Men's Volleyball Beats USC In 4 Sets
March 09, 2010 | Men's Volleyball
March 9, 2010
Freshman Jonas Umlauft had 25 kills and teammate Joshua Walker added 22 kills to help the No. 5-ranked Hawaii men's volleyball team beat No. 7 USC, 32-30, 27-30, 30-18, 30-27, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Tuesday (March 9) at USC's Galen Center.
Hawaii improved to 12-7 overall and 8-6 in the MPSF. USC--which beat Hawaii in 4 sets on Monday (March 8)--dropped to 10-7 overall and is tied with the Warriors in the MPSF standings at 8-6.
Umlauft and Walker each added 9 digs and 3 blocks, while Walker hit at a .326 clip and served 2 aces. Steven Hunt had 11 kills and 11 digs for Hawaii and Nejc Zemljak added 19 digs and 59 assists. Matt Rawson had 9 kills and 5 blocks, Steven Grgas hit .583 with 7 kills and 5 blocks and Ric Cervantes had 9 digs.
For USC, Tony Ciarelli had 21 kills, Murphy Troy added 20 kills, 10 digs, 5 blocks and 2 aces, Maddison McKibbin had 12 digs, 8 kills and 5 blocks and Andrew Pizula had 11 digs.
Hawaii hit .287 overall while the Trojans hit just .207. The Warriors had more digs (64 to 56) but USC had the advantage in blocks (14.0 to 11.5).
The first set was tight throughout until a USC serving error followed by a Trojan hitting error gave the set to Hawaii. The Warriors hit .318 and had 6.5 blocks in that set. USC had the lead throughout most of the second set before Hawaii went on a 5-0 run to tie it at 24-24 before consecutive kills by Troy and Ciarelli gave the Trojans all the margin they needed. The Warriors hit just .195 in that set as USC posted 5.5 blocks. It was all Hawaii in the third set, as the Warriors jumped out to a 7-1 lead, then after USC closed to within 12-11, the Warriors went on a 5-0 spurt and the Trojans couldn't catch up. Hawaii hit .372 in that set to USC's .103. USC held a 13-9 edge in the fourth set before Hawaii scored 9 of the next 11 points to forge an 18-15 lead. USC then caught up at 26-26, but consecutive kills by Rawson and Umlauft and a Trojan hitting error brought Hawaii to match point.
USC now has a 9-day break before traveling to No. 4 BYU for a pair of MPSF matches on March 19 and 20.
