Pepperdine University
Hawai'i
Men's Volleyball Beats Hawaii in MPSF Semifinals
4/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
IRVINE, Calif. - Josh Taylor powered down a match-high 22 kills to lead the Pepperdine men's volleyball team to a four-set victory over Hawaii in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament on Thursday night.
The fifth-ranked and third-seeded Waves improved to 24-5 on the season with the 21-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-16 victory over the third-ranked and second-seeded Rainbow Warriors (24-6). Pepperdine will play in Friday night's tournament final at 7 p.m. in the Bren Events Center against the winner of tonight's second match between UC Irvine and USC.
"We played really well to beat a good team, and we're looking forward to our next match," Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. "Winning feels good but there's still more volleyball to play. You always hear how important serve and receiving is, and it is. When we sustained our serves, our block defense was good and we scored some points."
Taylor (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School), a senior outside hitter, hit .417 (22-7-36) on the night and also had eight digs. Senior opposite Parker Kalmbach (Coto de Caza, Calif./Tesoro HS) contributed 14 kills, seven digs and five blocks.
Both middle blockers were highly effective. Senior Matt Tarantino (Van Nuys, Calif./Alemany HS) had eight kills and six blocks while hitting .545 (8-2-11). Fellow senior Nikola Antonijevic (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson HS) moved into the starting lineup at the last minute and posted six kills, a match-high seven blocks and a .455 hitting percentage (6-1-11).
Senior setter Matt West (Seattle, Wash./Shorewood HS) had 50 assists and six blocks, while senior libero Brennan Anderson (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS/Ohio State) added a match-high 11 digs.
After a slow defensive start, the Waves held the Rainbow Warriors (24-6) to just a .186 hitting percentage overall. Pepperdine hit .282 on the night and also had a 14.0-11.5 edge in blocks and a 44-36 advantage in digs.
Hawaii took set one as the Warriors outhit the Waves .419 to .263. The Rainbow Warriors never trailed in the set, and Pepperdine only scored three times off its serve.
The Rainbow Warriors got off to another good start in the second set after going up 4-1. But the Waves rallied back and eventually took their first lead of the match at 9-8 after a service ace by senior outside hitter Scott Rhein (Pleasant View, Tenn./Aaron Academy). Tied 11-11, the Waves scored four of the next five points, two of them off blocks, to make it 15-12 at the media timeout. The Waves went up by as many as four at 21-17 after a UH hitting error, and then went on to even the match at one set apiece.
Pepperdine made a late comeback to win the crucial third set and go up 2-1. The Waves led 15-13 at one point, but the Rainbow Warriors scored four straight points to go back in front. It was still 23-21 in Hawaii's favor when Taylor took over. He had back-to-back kills to tie the set at 23. After a Hawaii kill gave the Warriors a set point, Taylor posted two more kills in a row, and then the Waves won the third set when a Hawaii attack went long.
The fourth set was all Pepperdine, particularly down the stretch. The Waves took the lead for good at 10-8 after a kill by Antonijevic and a UH attack error. It grew to 14-10 after four straight points, which included kills by Antonijevic and Taylor and a solo block by Tarantino, and then to 18-13 after two straight kills by Tarantino.
Hawaii scored twice to make it 18-15, but the Waves ran off the next six points to reach match point, and won the match two plays later on a Hawaii service error.
The Rainbow Warriors got 14 kills from Sinisa Zarkovic and 11 from Kupono Fey.
Pepperdine's hitting percentage was pretty consistent throughout, highlighted by a .348 effort in the fourth set. Hawaii never again reached its heights of the first set and was held to a negative-.091 (six kills and eight attack errors) in the fourth set.
The Waves got a measure of revenge after having suffered two close-fought losses (four sets and five sets) to Hawaii in Honolulu in early March.
