VolleyBows stun No. 3 UCLA in 4

Wearing Hawaii’s new home uniform, opposite attacker Brook Sedore was dressed to kill on Friday night.

Sedore tied a career high with 24 kills in the 11th-ranked Rainbow Warriors’ 25-23, 26-24, 25-27, 25-22 volleyball upset of No. 3 UCLA in the Stan Sheriff Center.

"The win was great, man," UH middle blocker Nick West said. "You can’t ask for a better volleyball (match) in terms of highs and lows. We won some good rallies, and we ended up finishing first."

The Warriors ended a two-game losing streak to improve to 10-6 overall and 8-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The Bruins fell to 13-4 and 10-3.

"In the MPSF, rankings don’t matter," UH middle Taylor Averill said. "Clearly, any team can beat any team on any night. We focused on the opponent in front of us and gave our best."

Because of injuries and circumstances, the Bruins were playing with Hagen Smith, their third starting setter of the season. No matter who was at the controls, the firepower comes from two left-side hitters All-America Gonzalo Quiroga and 7-foot Robart Page. Both entered the match taking 58 percent of the Bruins’ 1,673 swings.

"Those two are magnificent players," Sedore said. "If we wanted to win the (match), we had to take care of those two guys. I think we did a pretty good job."

Quiroga had 19 kills and hit .417 and Page contributed 17 kills on .273 accuracy. But neither was disruptive with their serves. UCLA did not score a natural point on Quiroga’s six serves in the first two sets.

And the Warriors were able to quell opposite Jackson Bantle, who had more errors (three) than kills (two).

"I think we did an OK job," Averill said. "We can still do better. They have good middles, too. That’s what makes this game so much fun."

The Warriors entered with two basic goals: handle the Bruins’ float serves, and feed Sedore. The Warriors used the second libero, Garrett Komisarek, in situations in which UCLA’s three float servers were behind the line.

"Komo is good on float serves," UH coach Charlie Wade said. "We knew they were 50-50 (between jump serves and floats). Half the time we could get out there. Komo helped out. He gave us a lift."

In the past five matches, Sedore averaged 10.6 kills.

"We kind of got away from going to our point-scoring opposite," Wade said. "We needed Brook to carry a little more load. He did. He gave us a lift."

In the second set, the Bruins tied it at 24 when Sedore hit wide left on a crossing shot. On the next play, setter Joby Ramos went back to Sedore, who launched a line shot from the right side for the kill.

Sedore then ricocheted a serve off Quiroga for an ace and a 2-0 lead entering the intermission.

"In clutch moments, he’s a good guy to go to," Ramos said of Sedore. "We worked on it a lot in practice. I say we keep it going."

The Bruins overcame a five-point deficit to win the third set. They scored the final three points to force a fourth set.

The Bruins took their first lead, at 21-20, in the fourth. But then Sedore tied it with a kill, sparking a 3-0 run. After UCLA middle Spencer Rowe cut the deficit to 23-22, UH scored the final two points. Jackson Bantle was wide left, and then Page hit into a double block.

Siki Zarkovic finished with 15 kills for UH. Averill added 12 kills and contributed to six of UH’s 11.5 blocks.

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces). Service Aces — UCLA 4 (Smith 2, Bantle, Kersten). Hawaii 6 (West 2, Ramos, Sedore, Timmer, Zarkovic)  Service errors — UCLA 9 (Bantle 3, Quiroga 3, Page 2, Rowe). Hawaii 15 (Sedore 4, Zakovic 4, Olsen 3, Averill 3, Ramos). Assists — UCLA 51 (Smith 44, Bantle 2, Quiroga 2, Page, Rowe, Chalmers). Hawaii 59 (Ramos 52, Olsen 2, West, Sedore, Zarkovic, Kanetake, Franciskovic). T — 2:22 Officials — Burt Fuller, Wayne Lee.  A — 1,843.