LA JOLLA, Calif. - Four Tritons had 10 or more kills, but it wasn't enough as the No. 15 UC San Diego men's volleyball team suffered a 3-1 loss against 11th ranked Hawai'i Saturday in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action at RIMAC Arena.
Hawai'i (2-5, 2-2 MPSF) won the first two sets by scores of 25-21 and 25-20 before UC San Diego (4-6, 2-3) peaked to win the third set, 25-20. However, the Warriors flipped the score in the fourth frame, taking the set 25-20 and winning the match. The Tritons couldn't ride their momentum from Friday night's 3-2 upset win over the Warriors.
Carl Eberts led UCSD with 14 kills and was followed by Nick Iorfino (12), Calvin Ross (12) and Shane Veiga (10). Ross, who posted a career night Friday with 17 kills and 19.5 points, was solid again as he hit .706 with no errors in 17 attacks. He also added four blocks. Veiga also had a strong night offensively, swinging at .643 with just one mistake in 14 swings. Iorfino and Mike Sierks each had six digs.
Senior setter Phil Bannan had 43 assists and needs just 37 more to become UCSD's all-time leader. Brooks Dierdorff is the current record holder with 3,867 helpers between 2004 and 2007.
For the second straight night, Hawai'i got a monster performance from Jonas Umlauft. He led all players with 24 kills while throwing in two service aces, five digs and three blocks. Umlauft, who had a match best 27 kills Friday, totaled 27.5 points tonight. Joshua Walker put away 13 kills, Brennon Dyer had four blocks and setter Nejc Zemljak had 38 assists and a match high eight digs.
"Hawai'i came out with a lot of fire tonight after losing last night," said UCSD head coach Kevin Ring.
Both teams had a productive night offensively as Hawai'i hit .424 (55-13-99) and UCSD hit .348 (58-19-112), its highest attack percentage of the season. The team's previous best was .333 against Princeton earlier this week.
The Tritons struggled at the service line, committing 17 errors.
"Our serving and passing, two things we did really well last night, were not as sharp tonight," said Ring. "To go along with that, Hawai'i passed much better in this match than last night's. But, we played three matches this week and won two of them, so I'm pretty happy about that."
UCSD will play a non-conference tilt against Hope International on Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at RIMAC Arena starting at 5 p.m.
- ucsdtritons.com -
