Warriors’ volleyball season ends with loss to UCLA

The broom was out and being pushed hard by UCLA across the Pauley Pavilion court and, along with that, Hawaii’s season.

The Rainbow Warriors, with nine momentum-killing service errors through the first two sets, could have easily decided it was time to head down the I-405 and get an early start on packing for this morning’s flight.

“But that’s not the type of team we are,” junior hitter Kupono Fey said. “We’re Warriors and we wanted to keep battling.”

Hawaii won a moral battle — taking Set 3 — but lost the scoreboard war after 2 hours and 7 minutes, seeing its season end with a 25-16, 25-16, 22-25, 25-21 loss to UCLA. The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation quarterfinal victory sends the Bruins (24-5) to Provo, Utah, for this week’s semifinal against Long Beach State (24-6).

Sophomore hitter Jake Arnitz had a match-high 16 kills, hitting .483 with just two errors, to lead the Bruins to a second consecutive win over Hawaii. Freshman setter Micah Ma’a (Punahou) celebrated his 19th birthday with 21 assists, seven kills and two aces for UCLA, which improved to 12-1 in Pauley Pavilion this season.

Senior hitter Siki Zarkovic added 11 kills with three aces for the Warriors, who were outblocked 11-2.

“Everyone wants to end their career with a win,” said Zarkovic, who ended his career with 1,305 kills, No. 3 on the UH career list. “But I’m satisfied that I gave it my all tonight.

“I’m most proud of our team. Other teams losing 16 and 16 would give up. That’s not our game. We fought back.”

Leading the change in Set 3 was junior setter Jennings Franciskovic, getting his first start in nine matches. Franciskovic went back to the service line with Hawaii leading 14-9; before long, the Warriors were up by 10, 19-9.

UCLA started chipping away, with two aces by Ma’a helping the Bruins pull to 21-15. JT Hatch’s ace — one of UCLA’s 10 — closed the gap to 22-19.

At 24-20, the Bruins held off two set points but not a third, with freshman Nainoa Frank finishing it off with one of his five kills.

The momentum UCLA had late in Set 3 carried over to Set 4, as the Bruins broke away from a 10-10 tie to take the lead for good 13-10. Hawaii stayed close but not close enough.

Arnitz ended it on the Bruins’ third shot at match point, ending the Warriors’ season at 16-12.

“I’m proud of our team, we stayed together,” said Franciskovic, who had 32 assists and just missed a double-double with a match-high nine digs. “Most teams would have folded.

“It wasn’t the outcome we wanted. We have a lot to improve on and we’re excited about being able to get back in the gym.”

It was also the final match for senior libero Kolby Kanetake, whose three digs gave him 775 and left him at No. 3 in the UH record book. Also finishing his career was hitter Brandon Hiehle, who came in as a serving sub in Set 4.

“We knew if we could execute a little better, we’d give ourselves a chance to win,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We were not putting pressure on them with our serves. … We kept missing our serves. We finally started putting pressure on them in Set 3.

“I thought their defense was really good. There was some rallies where they just one-armed it and popped it up. Arnitz had one in Set 4 where we were doing everything right during the rally and he just goes up and over (out of the back row).”

The bic — a back-row attack — “has been our strength and Arnitz had a fantastic match,” UCLA coach John Speraw said. “I thought we came out playing really solid volleyball.

“In the third set, we got into some serving difficulties with Franciskovic and Zarkovic. We got ourselves in a big hole, but we managed to come back, which I was happy to see. Thought we were playing the volleyball we had been playing in the first two sets in the fourth.”

NO. 3 UCLA DEF. NO. 8 HAWAII 25-16, 25-16, 22-25, 25-21

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 — Hawaii 4 (Zarkovic 3, Franciskovic). UCLA 10 (Arnitz 2, Hatch 2, Ma’a 2, Stahl 2, Bantle, Smith). Service errors — Hawaii 19 (Fey 5, Franciskovic 3, van Tilburg 3, Zarkovic 3, Mol 2, Hiehle, McKellar, Rosenmeier). UCLA 19 (Smith 5, Ma’a 4, Arnitz 3, Hatch 3, Stahl 2, Bantle, Martin). Assists — Hawaii 36 (Franciskovic 32, Zarkovic 2, Kanetake, van Tilburg). UCLA 44 (Smith 22, Ma’a 21, Stahl). T — 2:07. Officials — Ray Mink, Tom Saunders. A — 1,172.