The University of Hawaii volleyball team has crunched the numbers, checked them twice, and come to a practical solution.
"To make it easier on everyone," middle blocker Nick West said, "let’s just win both matches."
MPSF STANDINGS
| |
Conf. |
|
|
Overall |
|
W |
L |
GB |
W |
L |
| xy-BYU |
18 |
4 |
— |
18 |
6 |
| y-Pepperdine |
16 |
6 |
2 |
16 |
6 |
| y-Stanford |
15 |
7 |
3 |
18 |
7 |
| y-UCSB |
15 |
8 |
31⁄2 |
16 |
8 |
| y-UC Irvine |
14 |
8 |
4 |
17 |
9 |
| Long Beach St. |
14 |
9 |
41⁄2 |
17 |
9 |
| UCLA |
14 |
9 |
41⁄2 |
17 |
10 |
| Hawaii |
13 |
9 |
5 |
15 |
10 |
| USC |
14 |
10 |
5 |
16 |
10 |
| CS Northridge |
9 |
14 |
91⁄2 |
10 |
16 |
| Pacific |
2 |
20 |
16 |
3 |
22 |
| Cal Baptist |
2 |
22 |
17 |
4 |
24 |
|
| UC San Diego |
1 |
21 |
17 |
3 |
22 |
x-clinched mpsf tournament no. 1 seed and quarterfinal home court
y-clinched mpsf tournament bid
Thursday
UCLA def. Cal Baptist 25-20, 25-12, 25-23
lOng Beach State def. cs Northridge 25-18, 25-22, 25-19
Friday
Hawaii at Pepperdine, 4 p.m. HT
BYU at UC Santa Barbara
Stanford at UC Irvine
Pacific at UC San Diego
Saturday
Hawaii at Pepperdine, 4 p.m. HT
BYU at UCLA
Pacific at UC Irvine
Stanford at UC San Diego
Long Beach State at CS Northridge
End MPSF regular season
|
The Rainbow Warriors are on the playoff bubble entering road matches against second-ranked Pepperdine on Friday and Saturday nights in Firestone Fieldhouse. This is the final weekend of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s regular season.
The Warriors are in eighth place, at 13-9 in the MPSF, .002 percentage points ahead of USC (14-10), which already concluded its regular season. The top eight teams qualify for the MPSF playoffs.
UC Irvine (14-8) is in fifth place, and UCLA (14-9) and Long Beach State (14-9) are tied for sixth.
Of that group, UH holds the tiebreaker over only UCLA.
The Warriors will need to beat Pepperdine at least once. The Waves are 9-2 in home matches this season.
"The best way is to win everything," UH outside hitter Jace Olsen said, "and hopefully everybody else loses everything."
The Warriors have won four in a row over a nearly four-week period. Last weekend, they swept MPSF leader Brigham Young, ranked No. 2 at the time. Pepperdine is No. 2 this week, while UH has moved up to No. 8.
"There’s motivation to get back in and play the No. 2 team again," Olsen said.
Thanks to a 16-day break leading to the BYU series, the Warriors are refreshed and relatively healthy. West, who suffered a broken finger early in the season, no longer wears a heavy wrap. At this time last year, left-side hitter Siki Zarkovic was out with an ankle injury. This week, he’s the national player of the week.
This is the Warriors’ fifth road trip of the season.
"It’s fun," Olsen said of road trips. "We get to travel so far and take a trip with a bunch of your friends. It’s like going on spring break every weekend."
Setter Joby Ramos said: "We’ll be as ready as we’ll ever be. There’s a sense of urgency. It is a lot of our guys’ last year."
There are five UH seniors, including Olsen, Ramos, West and serving specialist Johann Timmer.
"By now, the team jell has gotten so good," West said. "We’re all getting along so well. The past week of practices have been going so well. I think it’s going to reflect on this trip."
