UH volleyball efficient in snapping 5-match skid

In a word: efficient.

In another word: relieved.

That summed up No. 8 Hawaii’s visit to Cal State Northridge’s Matadome on Friday night. Rainbow Warriors outside hitters Siki Zarkovic and Kupono Fey combined for 35 kills with just one hitting error — that by Zarkovic late in Set 1 — to snap a five-match losing skid with a 25-18, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22 victory over the Matadors.

The win moved Hawaii (11-9, 6-9 MPSF) into a tie with CSUN (12-8, 5-8) for seventh place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball standings . Both teams continue their battle to earn one of the four remaining berths in the MPSF tournament with tonight’s rematch.

“It was awesome,” Fey said — in a phone call — of the team’s first win since Feb. 15 at USC. “Our communication got better (after dropping Set 2). It feels good.”

Zarkovic finished with a match-high 21 kills — three off his season high — hitting .526 during the two-hour contest. Freshman opposite Stijn va Tilburg added 16, hitting .379, and Fey 14, hitting a career-high .700.

The only things coach Charlie Wade would want to change tonight are the number of service errors (15) and the serve-receive problem that led to the Set 2 loss. Hawaii gave up five aces and kills on two overpasses that prevented any thoughts of a sweep. He was very pleased with the blocking numbers; the Warriors won that battle 12.5-2 with junior middle Hendrik Mol in on six and freshman setter Joe Worsley five.

“We hit for a big number tonight,” Wade said, noting the team’s .472 hitting percentage.

“Even when losing Set 2, we were really good (match-high .542). When we passed, we passed well. When we didn’t …

“Obviously our blocking was key. Even if we didn’t block it we were touching a lot of balls. We know we can serve better and getting rid of that lapse in reception is a good place to start (to get a win Saturday).”

Worsley got his second consecutive start and spread the offense well, establishing the middle attack early and giving his outside hitters one-on-one opportunities. Hawaii had just 11 hitting errors on the night and “Joe is still learning the offense,” Wade said. “Sometimes he gets a little excited, slings it around too much, but overall he did a good job getting everyone involved and was good when it counted.”

So was Zarkovic at the ends of sets. The senior had four of Hawaii’s final six points in the pivotal Set 3, and had the key kills after the Matadors pulled to 23-21 and 24-22 in both Sets 3 and 4.

Junior hitter Jakub Ciesla had 18 kills and freshman hitter Dimitar Kalchev 16 for CSUN, which saw its three-match winning streak end. Junior Bradley Sakaida had three of CSUN’s five aces, all of which came in Set 2.

MPSF VOLLEYBALL

Friday

Hawaii def. CSUN, 25-18, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22

UCLA def. Concordia, 25-23, 25-21, 25-18

Long Beach State Invitational

Ohio State def. UC Irvine, 25-18, 20-25, 25-21, 25-17

Long Beach State def. Lewis, 23-25, 26-24, 25-16, 26-24

Saturday

Hawaii at CSUN

Pepperdine at Stanford

Long Beach Invitational

UC Irvine vs. Lewis

Ohio State at Long Beach State

No. 8 Hawaii def. no. 11 CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE, 25-18, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22

Service Aces — Hawaii 3 (Fey 2, Worsley). CSUN 5 (Sakaida 3, Porter, Ciesla). Service errors — Hawaii 15 (Zarkovic 5, van Tilburg 4, Worsley 3, Mol, Frank, Fey). CSUN 8 (Porter 2, O’Gorman 2, Sakaida, Kalchev, Byers, Starkey). Assists — Hawaii 57 (Worsley 53, Kanetake 3, Frank). CSUN 44 (Porter 39, Suarez 4, Ciesla). T — 2:00. Officials — Marvin Hall, Chris Hahn. A — 263.