The No. 7 49er men’s volleyball team will face off against inter-conference rival No. 9 University of Hawaii at the Walter Pyramid on Thursday and Friday.
LBSU (5-5, 4-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) is fresh off a four-game road trip where the team went 2-2, with the most recent match being a 3-0 sweep of UC Santa Barbara.
The ‘Niners had a two-set lead over Stanford, but were unable to hold on against the Cardinal back on Jan. 30. The team defeated Pacific, 3-1, on Jan. 31 in Stockton before getting swept by Cal State Northridge on Feb. 6.
Junior opposite Dean Bittner leads the ‘Niners in kills on the season; he is third in the MPFS in kills per set with an average of 5.22 in conference matches. Bittner is hitting at a .309 clip.
LBSU senior libero Dustin Watten leads the conference in digs with 3.96 per set.
Hawaii is playing in its first match since notching back-to-back wins at home against Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 30 and 31.
Freshman Steven Hunt has paced the Warriors (3-6, 2-4 MPSF) this season, posting 119 kills on a .372 kill percentage.
The 49ers are seventh in the MPSF in team hitting percentage at .282 (while holding conference opponents to .252). The Warriors are 11th at .223, while allowing MPSF opponents to hit at a .307 clip.
This is the first and only set of meetings for the two teams in the regular season. Last year the ‘Niners (5-5, 4-3 MPSF) swept the series in Honolulu.
Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. on both nights.
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Standings
TEAM Conference W/L Overall W/L
1. Pepperdine 5-0 6-0
2. UC Irvine 6-1 10-2
3. USC 4-1 7-2
4. CS Northridge 5-2 8-2
T5. Long Beach State 4-3 5-5
T5. UCLA 4-3 6-5
7. BYU 3-3 5-6
8. Stanford 3-4 7-5
9. Hawaii 2-4 3-6
10. UC San Diego 2-5 4-6
11. UC Santa Barbera 1-6 3-7
12. Pacific 0-7 2-10