MVB Goes Down in Four Versus Hawai'i

Saturday, April 8

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 PM

UCLA

17-9,10-8

Hawai'i

24-4,14-4

Hawai'i

UCLA

Seniors Hagen Smith (22) and Mitch Stahl (7) at the net.

Photo by: Don Liebig, UCLA Photography

MVB Goes Down in Four Versus Hawai'i

April 08, 2017 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (pdf)

The No. 6 UCLA men's volleyball team dropped a four-set decision to No. 4 Hawai'i in an MPSF match played on Saturday night in the Wooden Center. Scores of the contest were 39-41, 23-25, 25-18, 22-25. Jake Arnitz led four Bruins in double-digit kills with 14. Eric Sprague blocked a career-high eight balls and senior Michael Fisher added 10 kills. UCLA out hit the Rainbow Warriors .287 to .195, but could not overcome 31 service errors on the night. UH won the team blocking battle, by a 17.0 to 15.5 count, and each squad finished with seven aces, including five by UCLA's Mitch Stahl. The Bruins, now 17-9 will take on No. 5-ranked UC Irvine in the quarterfinal round of the MPSF Tournament next Saturday at 7 p.m. The teams split a pair of matches played during the regular season, each winning on their home court.

Set one, the longest played by the Bruins since 2001, was tied 35 times. Neither team led by more than two points leading up to a tie at 23-all. A Sprague kill then gave UCLA a look at set point for the first time. Hawai'i answered to even the match up again and UCLA then had 11 more chances to serve for the set. The visitors battled back to even the score on each occasion and finally put two kills together to end the set at 39-41. The Bruins outhit UH .356 to .217 for the set, but were handcuffed by 15 service errors. Fisher recorded 10 kills in the set, while fellow senior Jackson Bantle added seven.

Hawai'i moved out to a quick 3-9 advantage to begin set two. UCLA clawed its way back in to it and trailed 12-13 after a block by Stahl and Micah Ma'a. UCLA could not gain the lead, but evened the set at points 21, 22 and 23. A UH block and a Bruin error ended the set at 23-25. UCLA hit .121 with 10 attack errors, while Hawai'i struggled to a .065 hitting percentage.

UCLA rode the strong serve of Stahl to a 6-0 lead in set three. The senior tallied an ace for the 18^th consecutive match. UH narrowed the gap to 9-7, before a Stahl kill lifted the Bruins into a 10-7 edge. UCLA built the margin to 16-11 after two more aces from Stahl. Kills by Stahl and Arnitz finished off the set at 25-18 for UCLA. The Bruins hit .435 to .176 for Hawai'i. Stahl finished with four aces in the set.

The visitors had the early momentum in set four, but UCLA rallied to tie the score at 5-all after an ace from Dylan Missry. Hawai'i broke an 11-all tie with two straight points and led until UCLA leveled the score at 21 on a Missry kill. A couple of service errors and a block put UH ahead 22-24 and the Rainbow Warriros took the match on another block. UH hit .310 in set four to .229 for the Bruins.

Sprague matched his career-high with 11 kills (.300) in addition to his career-best 8 block assists. Smith had 43 set assists and 10 digs. JT Hatch also had 10 digs. Ma'a added 19 set assists, eight digs and three blocks. Missry finished with nine kills and an ace. Christian Hessenauer totaled five kills (.364), an ace and a couple of blocks.

MPSF QUARTERFINALS
UPCOMING MATCH/RECENT RESULTS
Saturday, April 15; 7:00 pm Local Time
Match 1- No. 8 seed USC at No. 1 seed Long Beach State
'17 Series: Tied 1-1 (LBSU 3-0 @ LB-F. 24; USC 3-1- @ USC-J. 11)
Match 2- No. 5 seed UCLA at No. 4 seed UC Irvine
'17 Series: Tied, 1-1 (UCI 3-2 @ UCI-F. 24; UCLA 3-0 @ UCLA-J. 12)
Match 3- No. 6 seed Pepperdine at No. 3 seed Hawaii
'17 Series: UH, 2-0 (3-0 @ UH-F. 26; 3-0 @ UH-F. 24)
Match 4- No. 7 seed Stanford at No. 2 seed BYU
'17 Series: BYU, 2-0 (3-1@ STAN-F. 24; 3-0@ STAN-F. 23)