Blog: Stanford’s Hawaii lineup stands in the way of UH men’s volleyball team

In front of a nearly sold out crowd of 5,391 at the Stan Sheriff Center, the UH men’s volleyball team went the distance on Saturday edging out Pepperdine University in five sets to win their first playoff game since 2003. With the game on the line in the fifth set after losing the first and fourth set, the Warriors had two chances to win the match before serving out. Then at the teams third attempt at match point, setter Nejc Zemljak served and the ball fell on Pepperdine’s side for an ace and the game winning point (see end video for wild finish).

Fourth-ranked Hawaii (19-9) advances to play at Stanford in an MPSF semifinal match Thursday. The Warriors will travel to California to take on the number-one ranked Stanford team featuring an almost all Hawaii roster that includes two-time All MPSF first-team setter Kawika Shoji, All-MPSF second team libero and brother Erik Shoji, and this season’s MPSF player of the year Sophomore and Iolani High School Alum, outside hitter Brad Lawson.

In other action, the OIA baseball season came to end this weekend as the Pearl City Chargers continued their undefeated record taking the OIA championship title against Campbell High School. Pearl City now 15-0, had to rally back from a 3-1 deficit in the sixth inning as the Sabers took their lead in the top of the fourth on Ben Carino’s two-run double. After taking back the lead, Chase Numata, Pearl City shortstop and closer, loaded the bases for the Sabers with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. Avery Marquez of Campbell drew a full 3-2 count, but Numata caught him swinging with a game wining strike out. The 2010 Wally Yonamine Foundation State Baseball Championships featuring Pearl City and Campbell begins May 5.

And lastly there are the NBA playoffs, for those who don’t watch all the games daily, it’s might be hard to keep up especially during the first round best-of-seven series match-ups. Lets just say that so far, the teams that are supposed to be winning are winning, and the close match-up series are ... well, close. Some teams on the threshold of wrapping up their series are one win away of moving on to the conference semifinals. The biggest series to watch is the Los Angeles Lakers, aka Kobe’s Lakers, against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With the youngest regular season scoring champion Kevin Durant, the Lakers have had their handful and this could go the distance of all seven games.

That’s it for now. Don’t forget to go for a run, swim, hike, play a pick-up game or just get out of your office, if you have one. Enjoy Hawaii and being healthy!